The annual Adirondack Balloon Festival kicks off tonight.
After being put on pause by the pandemic, the Adirondack Balloon Festival will be floating away this weekend.
Organizer Erin Reid Coker says it’s being held for the 50th time.
“In the early 70s, there was Walt Grishkot and a gentleman named John Marsden, were looking for ways to boost the economy in Warren County. And you know, this is where it came out of, and 50 years later, we're still doing it,” Coker said.
Coker says attendees should arrive early.
“This event, over four days, can draw 150,000 people easily. And being at a county airport, there's only a few roads in and a few roads out.”
It’s not just balloons, Coker says.
“We have lots of kids activities. And everybody's there to enjoy themselves. We have a craft fair,” Coker said.
The main events begin Friday, but the festival gets going tonight.
“The first day of the schedule is Thursday afternoon at Crandall Park in Glens Falls, it's a little, it's a smaller venue than the airport. So we'll have 10 balloons there. And, you know, an estimated launch time of 6 p.m. When you get into the airport launches, that's where you'll see the 97 registered pilots. And we have two launches on Saturday. One at sunrise, so it's around 6 a.m. again, weather permitting, and then we'll have a 5 p.m. launch. And then a moonglow, which is at dusk. We'll have about half of those balloons light up the night sky — not fly, they'll stay stationary and sync their burners to some music,” Coker said.
Coker says it’s an economic boon.
“From that not-for-profit standpoint, you know, they've raised over the 50 years, almost a million dollars,” Coker said.
Coker says his participation started innocuously enough, but-
“Being a local photographer, I actually had a client who approached me for some photographs of local events like the balloon festival. And so I approached the director of the balloon festival, who I knew in passing from some other, you know, photo jobs, I did some grant projects, and I said, ‘Can I help out? I know you guys don't have an archive of images for media for historical purposes?’ And his answer was ‘Yes, but we cannot pay you.’ So, right away, I knew I was getting involved in something that wasn't for money. And from there, I kind of added on duties every year,” Coker said.
Matt Hunter, a Capital Region native now living in Florida, says it’s always enjoyable to come back, since it’s what got him into hot-air ballooning.
“As a little kid, I was running around all over the place, helping every pilot I could with getting the balloons set up and in the sky. So I kept on telling everybody I was going to have a balloon one day, and now I have six,” Hunter said.
Hunter says setup is more complicated than it looks.
“You get the nylon part out of the bag, and it's about 350 pounds of dead weight. My baskets weigh about 450 pounds. You get everything connected. You have a big, huge inflator fan, you fill it with cold air. Once you get enough cold air in the balloon, you put some heat into it and stand it up,” Hunter said.
Hunter says that takes about 15 to 20 minutes. The best part?
“The camaraderie of all the balloonists and everybody getting together and just watching the magic happen of all these just balloons floating in the sky, all these pretty colors,” Hunter said.
Ballooning’s also good for nature watching, Hunter says.
“You watch the deer playing underneath you, just the birds flying around underneath you. I mean, just, everything's right there underneath you,” Hunter said.
Hot air balloon designs are personal, Hunter says.
“Most balloons, when they get one manufacturer, they actually do make their own patterns. I've got one with up and down stripes. And the guy that actually designed it, his kids designed for him. And they wanted a lot of brightness in it. So every other every couple of panels is a yellow panel, so you can see it really good from the sky. And then the one I actually have here at the festival, it's navy blue, red and yellow with like a little pattern in the red and yellow,” Hunter said.
And if someone wants one?
“There's probably about five or six really good manufacturers in the United States that still make them. And there's a couple places that actually make replacement envelopes. So you can get those. One of them, one of the main ones is Head, out of Georgia,” Hunter said.
Calm weather is best for the balloons.
“I'm looking for winds that are less than seven miles an hour on the surface. I'm looking for no rain. We just want a nice, nice calm morning or evening to set up the balloon,” Hunter said.
Robin Mapp is Airport Manager of Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport in Queensbury, which is hosting the event.
“This is my third year as airport manager, my third balloon festival here, and each year has steadily improved and become a little bit bigger a little bit better as we exited COVID. So our numbers have slowly increased. My last two balloon festivals have been phenomenal, to say the least. And I'm very excited for the 50th anniversary,” Mapp said.
Mapp says it’s a process to get approval for the event.
“One of the first steps that we do at the airport is to submit a ground ops plan to the FAA to our safety inspector for approval. That's just to make sure that we have every emergency responder in place, just in case something goes wrong, we have the resources available to respond to certain events,” Mapp said.
Closing Floyd Bennett Memorial is different than with a larger airport like Albany or Boston.
“The onus is on the pilots to determine where else they will go during those times,” Mapp said.
A schedule of events and other information can be found here.
