Hot Air Balloon Festival returning Friday after years-long hiatus

The hot air balloon festival, called Balloons over the Bluegrass, is happening this Friday, August 2 at the Danville Boyle County Airport.

Previously called the Great American Balloon Race, the event is returning under a different name after a five-year hiatus.

Gates will open at the airport at 4 p.m., where attendees can see all the hot air balloons before they take off.

There will be inflatables, food trucks, music, and tethered hot air balloon rides. There will be one tethered hot air balloon that will give 4 to 5 minute rides to people. Rides are $10 per person, and no pre-registration is required.

Balloons will take flight sometime after 7 p.m., and will go whichever direction and speed the wind takes them. Airport Board Member Jake Bell explained that the evening is when the wind usually calms down.

“Balloons are very sensitive to wind speed and direction, so we have to wait until the air is nice and calm in the evening,” Bell said.

The Arts Commission of Danville / Boyle County is hosting one of their summer concert series at the airport in conjunction with the event, and will feature the band Mercury 7.

Bell said they’re expecting 10 to 15 balloons this year. Most of the balloon pilots come in from Louisville, and some from Lexington, Cincinnati and southern Indiana.

The original hot air balloon race event started over 30 years ago, and originally took place in conjunction with Danville’s Great American Brass Band Festival each year. Although it wasn’t planned by the Brass Band Festival, the event was usually the same weekend as the festival, which helped draw crowds.

In the past, it had been planned by Hometown Radio Network. The airport provided the venue but did not organize the event.

The last year it was held was 2018. In 2019 there were rainouts both on the original date and the rainout date. It was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19. Then due to staffing changes at Hometown Radio Network in recent years, Bell explained that they did not have the manpower to bring it back.

Bell, who is part of the airport’s community board that helps organize community events at the airport, said they wanted to bring back the event to help celebrate the airport’s 90th anniversary. The original dedication of the airport was in 1934.

So the airport organized the event themselves on a separate weekend from the Brass Band Festival. The airport spoke with the Brass Band Festival, and determined they did not have room in the festival schedule to fit it in this year.

The event is a festival, rather than a race. Previous balloon events had a competition element, where balloon pilots would take off toward a target and try to drop a bean bag on the target. This year, however, there’s no race or competition, but Bell said the balloon take-off will look the same to spectators, as people didn’t get to see the competition side before.

This year is also a trial to measure the attendance and community response to having it on a weekend other than Brass Band.

Bell said there’s been a big demand for the event, and it was always successful, but they’re not sure how much of the success was related to it being the same time as Brass Band.

“The Balloon Race was always a very, very popular event in town,” Bell said. “The last year it was held in 2018, we estimated there were 5,000 people in attendance at the airport.”

Right now it’s being organized as a one-off event, but they are experimenting to see if there will be enough interest in continuing it each year.

Bell said traffic has been an issue at the event in past years, but they’ve had conversations with local law enforcement to make sure it won’t be as big of an issue this year.

Bell wanted to thank all the volunteers, local agencies and sponsors of the event for helping put it on.

The post Hot Air Balloon Festival returning Friday after years-long hiatus appeared first on The Advocate-Messenger .