Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

[Eagle43]

DW and I traveled to New Mexico to see this balloon fiesta. It's wonderful and I recommend you see it at least once. We were there for the dawn patrol and the ascension on the first day. I've never seen a sport where the fans can walk among the players as they prepare. We even helped some by holding down the gondala as they righted the balloon. I think there were 700+ balloons when we were there.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

Great fireworks too.

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta

The event was marred on Sunday when a 60-year old woman was killed by falling out after one of the balloons was caught on a power line.

ABQJOURNAL NEWS/BREAKING: One Dead in Balloon Crash

 

[TromboneAl]

I would have thought that people in the gondola would wear safety lines. It's not as if they need to go very far while standing in that basket.

And while on this general topic, wouldn't you think that Fosset's plane would have some kind of onstar-type device that would make it easy to locate when it crashed?

 

[daystar]

I dream of living in Albuquerque. I wish I could have made it to the ballon festival.

 

[TheRib]

Went to the Balloon Festival a couple of years ago and was blown away by the number of balloons, the different shapes, and designs. Once 400 to 700 balloons are in the air at the same time, it is just mind blowing to see.
If you have a mind to, you can usually find a crew tha;t needs help. We stayed at the Marriott in Albuquerque, and a number of the balloons owners stayed there and were looking for people to help them get the balloon aired up, be in the chase car at the end. Just a fun 3 or 4 days and when my grandson gets older I plan on taking him