The most anticipated day has arrived! The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is a yearly hot air balloon festival that takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in October. This year Balloon Fiesta is a nine-day event happening from October 5 to October 13, and has over 600 hot air balloons anticipated this year. The event is the largest balloon festival in the world and 1,000 pilots will be taking to the air form Balloon FiesyPark this week.
Balloon Fiesta Park covers 365 acres with a 78-acre launch field. That makes just the launch field almost the size of SIXTY football fields. That’s a lot of grass to water. As of this post I have walked 7.63 miles here on property just today.
The Balloon Fiesta is the most photographed event on the planet. Ballon Fiesta is one of the only balloon events where viewers can walk among the balloons and talk to the pilots. Approximately 900,000 people will attend this week.
Mass ascension is one of the most wondrous events of the Balloon Fiesta. All participating balloons launch in two waves, starting at about 6 a.m. The lead balloon takes off during Dawn Patrol flying the American flag as the "Star-Spangled Banner" plays. The launch of the hundreds of balloons takes about two hours.
While waiting for a launch Tim and I found our pilot and balloon from Thursday and hung out with them. This morning they had to eventually scrub the Mass Ascension. Weather conditions were favorable for launch but not for landing. Fog had set in and if had they launched the pilots may not have been able to see ground hazards or even their landing sites.
Once Mass Ascension was cancelled the field cleared for most of the day. Our Airstream group had a pig roast this evening like you have never seen before. Tim got to help with setting him into the pit and flipping him during the day. This was headed up by the Texas Airstream Unit in attendance. Those cowboys know how to feed a group of hungry Airstreamers!
Next up was Fastrax Sky Divers, The Night Glow followed by fireworks!!! We got on the field late for night glow but will have more opportunity throughout the rest of the week. Tomorrow morning’s weather conditions look more favorable for Mass Ascension! This process continues everyday throughout the week.
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