International Balloon Fiesta

Last Updated on September 11, 2023 by

The Albuquerque Fiesta is a 9 day event featuring more than 600 hot air balloons all launching at the same time. They launch twice a day, every day except the final evening for a total of 17 potential launches. This year, they successfully launched 15 times, with only two cancelled due to high winds. (Can you guess what happens next?) Those two times were naturally our two events. (Sad face for Nana since this was her bucket list trip.) We splashed out for Gondola Club tickets our first evening which provides VIP parking, a catered meal with open bar, and private seating and bathrooms basically right on the parade field. (Not to mention a free swag bag. I do love free stuff.) For a catered event in the middle of a field, I have to say the food was pretty excellent with pasta, meat, and fish dishes, and some pretty decent dessert. And they weren’t kidding with a fully stocked open bar. No well drinks for this crowd. (Aren’t we the Bourgeoisie. Ha!) Sadly, the high winds prevented any type of launch, and in fact, they couldn’t even inflate for what they call the ‘Evening Glow’.

This nights ‘Evening Glow’ consisted of the DJ saying “1, 2, 3, All Burn”. What this means in real time is that the gondola drivers turn their propane burners on and light up the sky. Pretty neat to begin with, but after an hour, I was over it. It would have been super cool to see the balloons taking off in the setting sun. And, what a sunset it was. Not to mention the golden hour right before it against the mountains in the distance. Lots of moody clouds reflecting such AMAZING colors!)

We did get to watch some skydivers who apparently don’t find simply jumping out of a plane invigorating enough, they strapped fireworks to their bodies and launched in the dark. Pretty impressive. I’ve seen plenty of skydivers with the colored smoke (some of which we saw tonight), but never a full on fireworks display from a guy with a highly flammable chute in significant winds. (Three guys. With highly flammable suits. Shooting off fireworks. Not a sport I will be taking up any time soon.) There was also a more traditional fireworks display to close out the evening, and again, we got our money’s worth with a nearly 30 minute show from two different launch points. (One was right next to our area.) All in all, a total bust for the balloons, but a pretty nice night otherwise.

Best part of the whole night? After almost 24 hours of traveling for my mum to get to New Mexico – story for another time – we had a really nice guy golf cart us back to the car at the end of the night. He also regaled us with a story from the last Balloon Fest where he had vehicles towed from out of the no parking zone right up front. Said vehicles just happened to be official state government vehicles. Even better, one was the mayor’s. Perhaps that’s why he was relegated to driving us peons around in the golf cart this year.

The next morning at 4AM (wanna see my shocked face?!), we trudged our butts back out to the parade field to watch the final ascension of the Fiesta. (So glad we didn’t have that hour drive as we were in the hotel five minutes away.) Alas, high winds from the previous evening had not abated and no launch. Nine balloonists (out of the nearly 600) did at least inflate so there’s that. (But who’s counting? Me, that’s who. I was super excited that at least we got to see some fully inflated. There’s always next year – when, coincidentally, it will be the 50th year anniversary.)

One of the amazing things about the event is that the spectators have almost no restrictions on the parade field. Thousands of people are milling about literally feet from the canopies and baskets while they are inflating and (presumably) launching. (Welcome to the west. What an eye opener it is to be out here.) Although it was a bust for this year for us, this is definitely an event I would like to come back and see.

I’ll just add, that there were also some really cool vehicles around the show both days and some awesome mounted police we happened upon as we were leaving the next morning. Do you see that first horse – just over 18 hands. Amazing.

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