12th Annual Red, White & Blue Balloon Rally
I've recently had an opportunity to visit Letchworth State Park (Letchworth in my gallery) over the Memorial Day Weekend when the 12th annual Red, White & Blue Balloon Festival / Rally was on. I had a great time all the way from my 4 AM wake up call to arrive before sunrise to about noon when I made it home. There's something special about seeing the huge balloons stand up, get lit up by the sun, and lift off! Their bright colors just stand out so beautifully.
It was not straightforward for the balloonists nor for the photographers. Launch times were scheduled for the morning and evening of both Saturday and Sunday as well as Monday morning. In the end, all but the last launch had to be canceled due to wind. Especially the 6:30 PM launch time attracted crowds anticipating a great show of color and they had to leave disappointed.
To tame the disappointment, the balloonists set up the baskets for some photo opportunities and spread out couple balloons, and even pumped some air into them to show the initial preparation.
12th Annual Red, White & Blue Balloon Rally
I was there on Saturday evening and also Sunday morning that both got canceled. The winds were at about 12 miles per hour with gusts up to 16 and that was just too much. I had a chance to speak with a few pilots and learned that not only do they watch the ground wind speed but also speed higher up, and also consider weather reports from surrounding airports trying to predict what is coming. Winds in single digits are needed, the lower, the better.
After two failed attempts I was not going to miss the final attempt and arrived on site ahead of the scheduled 6 AM final launch. I wanted to photograph the sunrise over the Great Bend at 5:40 AM and then move to Archery Field for some balloon action. In the end, the third time was the charm and both parts of the plan worked out.
I was very impressed by the action and the skill level. This was not your typical launch followed by some coasting and a landing. The balloons launched quickly from the Archery Field, cleared the nearby tree line separating the meadow from the gorge, and dipped rapidly into the gorge. There, they hung around for quite a while some going up and down a few times, others getting all the way down to the river. There were some that overshot the gorge and ended up over on the other side of the Great Bend rather quickly. Oops!
This was also one occasion when doing the event in the fall might not be the right choice. While the park is famous for its autumn foliage thanks to having mostly deciduous trees, the balloons would get lost. In summer, or late spring, their colors stood out beautifully against the greenery below.
12th Annual Red, White & Blue Balloon Rally
Once the balloons floated east over the gorge we also decided to try our luck and attempt a balloon chase to see one land. With the gorge in the way, we drove to the southern tip, over a bridge there, and back up north. We could not see any balloons at first and were afraid we were too late but after finding a nice high and open vantage point we spotted a few. As we tried to stay on course towards them an official balloon chase vehicle passed us and we tagged along. We arrived at a spot just in time to see one do a low fly over a grain field, about a foot or two over a house's chimney, and land perfectly in the middle of their lawn.
It's quite amusing to hear the "ground crew" asking the owner "can we land a balloon on your lawn?", the owner asking "when?", and the crew answering "Now" while pointing at the chimney with the huge balloon just seconds before touching down.
I hope to be back next year and hope not only for a sunrise launch but also a sunset, which would front light the balloons above the gorge and back light the archery field, the opposite of what I had this time around.
The great experience prompted me to search the web for other similar events I could drive to. Balloon Federation of America has a nice list of balloon festivals you can refer to. You can sort the list by state to get a better idea what's happening nearby.
Have fun balloon watching and chasing!
Equipment used:
Using my links to buy your equipment keeps me going and costs you nothing. You can also use the Amazon search box in bottom left for anything not mentioned here. Thank you, I really appreciate it!