This past weekend was the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta. An annual event and the highlight of Bristol tourism. Balloonists come from all over the globe for the 4 day fiesta and there are mass ascents where all the balloons take off at once, music, food, loads of people and an event they call after glow where the balloons are tethered to the ground but 'light up' after dark to music. We even had Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina the Teenage Witch) visit Bristol for the event!
The real challenge for this festival is the weather. As you probably know, balloons are fragile and can't just take off whenever or wherever. The wind conditions are critical and Thursday and Friday ascents were cancelled as well as Saturday morning's ascent due to strong winds. Finally on Saturday night, things calmed down enough for the evening mass ascent and Sunday was fine.
We were busy getting settled and a bit put off by the estimated crowds and parking horror stories so didn't make it to the grounds themselves. However, on our way back from dinner downtown on Saturday, we were treated to a good sampling of the balloons from the evening ascent.
Terrible picture, but gives you a taste of how many were in the sky. Brian counted 14 (not all pictured).
The real challenge for this festival is the weather. As you probably know, balloons are fragile and can't just take off whenever or wherever. The wind conditions are critical and Thursday and Friday ascents were cancelled as well as Saturday morning's ascent due to strong winds. Finally on Saturday night, things calmed down enough for the evening mass ascent and Sunday was fine.
We were busy getting settled and a bit put off by the estimated crowds and parking horror stories so didn't make it to the grounds themselves. However, on our way back from dinner downtown on Saturday, we were treated to a good sampling of the balloons from the evening ascent.
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