Meet the man who is pumping air back into the RNC balloon drop

MILWAUKEE – Treb Heining’s ambitions for a celebratory atmosphere at this year’s Republican National Convention are sky-high.

The self-described “balloon guy” has orchestrated the celebratory balloon drop at every GOP convention since 1988.

“The basic mechanics of the conventions have stayed pretty much the same,” Heining said in an interview with PBS News. “It’s just a venue that changes and [it’s] a little bit different in every city that we work in.”

The balloon drop is among the most enduring images from the major party political conventions every four years.

This year’s RNC balloon drop includes more than 100,000 red, white, blue and gold balloons suspended high in the ceiling of Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum. Ensuring the drop goes according to plan is a highly choreographed, high-wire act.

All the balloons were rigged into nets and lifted into the ceiling the Saturday before the convention by workers on the floor and straddled across the arena’s beams, high above the ground. The team then develops “several plot plans,” Heining said, to know “exactly where we want to place the balloons.”

READ MORE: The pandemic popped the balloon drop. Here’s why we might not miss it

Later, Heining and his team will mark cues to know when to trip the lines and unleash the sea of balloons down to the delegates and convention attendees below for Thursday’s primetime closing ceremonies.

“I have a sheet. I’m on the main camera platform on Thursday night, right in the center of the action. And I’ll be looking at the sheet and, basically, I will say, ‘Go number one,’” Heining said. “Then, when I see that just about dissipating down, [I say,] ‘Okay, go number two.’”

Getting the choreography right for both the convention attendees and the millions watching at home makes political conventions among the most stressful events that Heining and his team work, despite their decades of experience.

“The quantity of balloons always impresses people. Most people have a hard time tying one,” Heining said. “So when they come into something like this and they see there’s thousands up there, it’s like, ‘Wow, this is going to be special.’”

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