The World Hot Air Ballooning Organization has been collecting statistics on hot air balloon festivals for quite some time now, and they just released the results for the state of Massachusetts (USA). The top three states with the largest number of hot air balloon festivals are: Florida, Arizona, and California.
This year’s San Francisco Bay Area National Hot Air Balloon Festival, take place in San Rafael, California. This annual event features hot air balloons of all shapes and sizes, with a variety of activities and exhibitors.
Who doesn’t love a good festival? We like to celebrate, party, and get together with friends—in one form or another.
Of course, we also love to celebrate, party, and get together with friends in the sky, where hot air ballooning has become a popular activity in recent years. There are a number of organizations that keep the flame of ballooning brightly lit.
The National Hot Air Balloon Association is one of them, and it sponsors a number of annual festivals.
The largest hot air balloon festival in America
Over the years, there seems to be two types of people when it comes to hot air ballooning. There are those who view hot air balloons as a fun, relaxing way to travel, and those who look at them with a sense of awe, a bit like you would look at a 747.
Well, it’s time to join them the other side of that coin. Hot air ballooning has gone from being a luxury sport for the wealthy, to being a popular and affordable way to travel.
- Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the largest hot air balloon festival in America-Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, and it has been held every July since 1982.
This year’s Fiesta will be held on July 11-14, and will include more than 1,000 balloons, along with hot air balloons from all over the world.
Albuquerque is one of the cities where you can find the largest hot air balloon festival in the world.
For a hot air balloon festival, and Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in particular; there is no such thing as being over-the-top. So far, the event has received 4.5 stars from both visitors and local business owners.
- New Jersey lottery festival of ballooning.
Ballooning is a quintessentially American pastime—a fun, adventurous, and even patriotic activity that’s always available to New Jersey residents.
The Garden State Balloon Festival, an annual event that takes place each summer in Cape May, draws millions of visitors each year and features thousands of hot air balloons, along with competitions, food, music, and attractions.
If you’re a fan, you’ll want to check out this past weekend’s event, which was headlined by the last-ever flight of the American country music legend Reba Mc Entire.
- Colorado springs labor day lift off!
The 2016 Colorado Labor Day Sunday Lift Off event will allow participants the opportunity to get up in the air and fly with a professional hot air balloon pilot.
Enjoy a spectacular sunrise along with a nice hot cup of coffee while you fly over the city of Colorado Springs, enjoy a meal at Anthony’s Table Restaurant, the finest Italian restaurant in the area and be sure to bring your camera so you can capture the magic of the moment.
- The great gas balloon race.
One of the world’s most famous hot air balloon races, the Great Gas Balloon Race. Early in the morning on Thursday, July 13th, the giant balloons will take off from the city of Geneva, Switzerland. The race will take them over the Alps to the Mediterranean Sea and back.
For the duration of the race, pilots will fly their vehicles at altitudes of up to 16,000 feet before opening their valves to release the hot air that gives the balloons their buoyancy.
The race will last for about 12 hours, during which time the pilots will navigate through the air currents and avoid other hot air balloons in addition to the other dangers of flying in the air.
- Havasu balloon festival and fair: The best hot air balloon festival in Arizona
If you’ve ever dreamed of flying through the clouds on a hot air balloon, you know that the first step is to get your hands on one!
The Havasu Balloon Festival and Fair is the premier hot air ballooning event in Arizona, and it’s the perfect place to start, as it’s located on the beautiful Colorado River just 45 minutes from Las Vegas.
The annual Havasu Balloon Festival and Fair has become a popular event in the Prescott area and is held around Labor Day weekend.
The annual event is a hot air balloon festival that has been going on for the past 16 years. The event is held in the beautiful and historic town of Prescott, Arizona and is one of the most exciting events in the region.
- Annual reno hot air balloon race
As every year, thousands of people around the world are planning to come for the event. The event, which takes place in Reno, Nevada, will see around ten thousand visitors gather to watch more than 100 hot air balloons take to the sky.
- The great reno balloon race: A free hot air balloon festival in the southwest
Gone are the days when hot air balloons floated idling in the sky with just one pilot at the controls (unless you count the tethered gas-filled balloons at the Nevada Test Site). No more do you have to make the long overnight or two-day trip to get a taste of what it’s like to be a balloonist.
The Great Reno Balloon Race is a free, five-day festival in the southwest that draws more than 400 balloonists from all over the country to enjoy festival-style entertainment, food, and music.
The largest hot air balloon festival in Asia
- Philippines international hot air balloon festival in Clark, Pampanga.
The Philippines is currently experiencing its best hot air balloon season in years. The three main hot air balloon festivals are the Clark International Hot Air Balloon Festival.
The Subic Bay International Hot Air Balloon Festival and the Batangas International Hot Air Balloon Festival, which all run from August to October.
The Clark festival, which is held in the town of Clark, Pampanga, is the largest of the three, attracting more than 30,000 balloon enthusiasts to celebrate the region’s heritage.
The Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival in Clark, Pampanga is a hot air balloon festival held once every two years in Clark, Pampanga, Philippines.
The 1st Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival was held on February 20 – 23, 2013. This is a new addition to the many balloon festivals held all over the world.
It is an event that showcases the beauty of flying the hot air balloon and allows the public to see the beauty of the Pampanga Valley.
- Taiwan international balloon festival in Taitung.
The National Taitung International Balloon Festival has been held for 20 years since 1995. The Taiwan International Balloon Festival is the most famous hot-air balloon festival in Taiwan, which is held annually on the 2nd or 3rd day of the first lunar month.
The festival is held in Taitung, a beautiful and scenic city in southern Taiwan. The festival features more than 20 kinds of colorful hot-air balloons.
Besides fun and enjoyment of the flying, visitors can also enjoy colorful hot-air balloons driving, a hot-air balloon competition and many other exciting events.
Taiwan, which is known for just about everything, was just named the best place in the world to fly hot air balloons, according to a new poll by USA Today.
The annual poll, which surveyed more than 6,000 balloonists, found that the island nation was rated the best place in the world to launch an airborne adventure.
Canada
- International balloon festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec, Canada.
The International Balloon Festival of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in Quebec, Canada, held annually on the second weekend of July, is an event that draws tens of thousands of people to the countryside town of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu in central Quebec.
The festival, now in its 16th year, consists of a series of events that honor people who have made significant contributions to ballooning around the world.
The festival’s highlight is the “Festival of the Stars,” which features a spectacular night sky filled with thousands of hot air balloons.
This event is one of the most attended fireworks shows in the world, and is also one of the most beautiful displays of fireworks in the world.
Europe
- European balloon festival in Igualada, Spain.
The Igualada Balloon Festival has been held in Spain for almost 30 years, in the same place, at the same time every year. The balloon competition is held in an arena that has been specially built for the occasion, and the atmosphere is always superb.
The festival is so well known that it has its own TV channel, which broadcasts the flying of the balloons live. This year, the event will be held on the 12th of July, and is open to anyone who wants to take part.
- International hot air balloon festival in Chateau-d ‘Oex, Switzerland.
A hot air balloon festival in Chateau-d ‘Oex, Switzerland was held from 23rd to 25th of June 2014. The festival is held every year since 1960, it is organized by the Swiss ballooning association “Ballonistes Suisses”.
It is mainly for students and enthusiasts, it is also a good opportunity to meet with friends from all around the world, have fun and relax.
The festival, which is held at the beginning of April, aims to promote hot air ballooning and to increase the popularity of the sport.
International hot air balloon festival in Chateau-d ‘Oex, Switzerland – Hot air ballooning is a pretty exciting sport, but the combination of extreme heights and the need to navigate through fog and turbulence during the flight can be pretty scary.
- Ferrara Balloons Festival, Italy.
The Ferrara Balloons Festival, a major event in the history of hot air balloons, has been held every summer since 1982 in the hills around Ferrara, Italy. The festival is a part of the national “Week of Beauty and Well-being”.
The event, which draws up to 250,000 visitors, includes an international competition, cultural activities, and an extensive program of aerial acrobatics and displays.
In the 4th week of October, the town of Ferrara, Italy holds the Ferara International Tourism Fair, which is the biggest event for the global hot-air ballooning community.
I’m Annie, a twenty-something year old girl who loves hot air balloons. So much so, that I have a full time job as a Flight Instructor and it is all I love talking about. Something about being up there in the elevated altitudes helps all my stresses float away!