Laundry in the morning, then we set out for the Balloon
Fiesta grounds. They had a temporary RV Park set up with space for over 1500
rigs. They had been pretty full, but given it was the last weekend, people were
leaving and there was plenty of room. No hook-ups, so we are free camping.
Around 4pm we caught the free shuttle to the Fiesta for the
evening session. The Balloon Fiesta park is ever 300 acres of launch sites,
carnival alley, food and souvenir vans and lots and lots of people. We found ourselves
a little bank to sit on and settled in for the show. As it got towards dusk the
balloons started to set up. Each balloon is carefully unrolled from its canvas
covering and laid out on the ground. They have big fans to fill the balloons with
cold air to start the inflation process, then switch to the gas blowers when
the mouth of the balloon is open and the bag is partly inflated. After a while
the balloon starts to lift off the ground, then the handlers use guy ropes to hold
it in position as they stand the basket up and get everything prepared.
As
balloon after balloon inflated, the whole arena filled up. They were bumping up
against each other as a big wall of colours. Night fell and they started the “Night
Magic Glow” – each balloon pilot switched from a hot blue flame to a bright
orange flame that lit up the balloon like a giant lightbulb. It was amazing!
They co-ordinated a few blasts so the whole lot were lit up. There were around
550 balloons at the Fiesta, and most of them were there.
As the balloons slowly deflated and sank to the ground the
arena went dark. They had a short laser light show while everything was packed
up and then fireworks. The Americans certainly know how to put on a fireworks
display. It was something else to see!
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