World’s Largest Balloon Festival Turns Skies Over Albuquerque into Kaleidoscope of Color

I had flown in balloons before, over herds of elephants and giraffes in Kenya’s Masai Mara, and thus was familiar with the graceful ascent, the lovely vistas that stretch forever and the euphoric sensation that overwhelms as you float above the treetops.

Yet as I learned again on a ballooning adventure in Albuquerque last year, no matter how many times you’ve been up in a balloon before, there is simply nothing that can compare to flying amid hundreds of other airborne pastel bubbles.

We lifted off in a crowd, and I felt as if I were in the center of a moving gum ball machine.

Swirling all around was a kaleidoscope of vibrant color and wild patterns. Several of us flew close enough to wave and greet each other in the stillness high above the city, and closer still to gently touch (called “kissing” in balloon-speak).

As we rose higher we spread out across the vast horizon, transforming the scene into a stunning montage--specks of color everywhere in the distance, the lazy Rio Grande winding its way through fertile fields, and a backdrop of the verdant hillsides of Albuquerque framed by a near cloudless cobalt sky.

Each October, balloon enthusiasts gather here to celebrate the 207-year-old sport at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, to be held Oct. 6-14 this year. Debuting in 1972 with a meager 16 balloons, the Fiesta is now the world’s largest, with 625 entrants from 25 countries, and more than 800,000 visitors.

During the nine-day period, there are mass ascensions each Saturday and Sunday mornings at 7 a.m., plus various weekday activities featuring displays of unusually shaped balloons, and assorted competitive events. Spectators can take their own balloon rides for about $150.

One event that now takes place around sunset each day is the spectacular Balloon Glow. For this, the balloons are tethered to the ground and inflated. Flames are shot into the balloons with propane burners, lighting them from within. Since they go dark between blasts, the 77-acre site is metamorphosed into a field of giant twinkling incandescent light bulbs glowing against a fading sky.

Ten years ago there were only 250 hot-air balloons in existence. Today, 4,000 are scattered around the world, not all of which look like the traditional teardrop-shaped balloon that David Niven and Cantinflas took aloft in the 1956 film “Around the World in Eighty Days.” The latest trend is specially shaped balloons.

While a regular balloon can cost upwards of $15,000, the custom-designed models go as high as $35,000. Even at those whopping numbers there are so many special-design balloons that an entire afternoon at the Fiesta has been devoted to showing them off.

Balloonists are a fun-loving bunch, which is obvious by looking at their entertaining creations. Topping the list are Chickee Balloon, a towering interpretation of Carmen Miranda (complete with fruit), Mr. Stork giving its newborn the ride of a lifetime, a huge Planter’s Peanut, a jetliner breaking through the clouds, and a mammoth replica of the book “Chronicle of the 20th Century.”

There’s even a witch on a broomstick hovering over a field. Yes, these oddities really can fly. Then again, at these prices they’d better.

For those eager to try hot-air ballooning but who have a fear of flying, there is good news. Many crew members have confided that they, too, will not fly in airplanes. But in this sport there is no sensation of movement because balloons travel at the same rate as the wind propelling them. It is akin to our Earth hurling through space at incredible speeds, with the velocity unfelt by us because we take our atmosphere with us.

Therefore, if you closed your eyes (which you’d be crazy to do since the view is incomparable), you would swear that you were still on the ground.

Experiencing a mass ascension, even from the ground, is about as close as you will get to stepping inside a Technicolor dream. It begins before 6 a.m. when thousands of people are already gathered at the dark, chilly launch site sipping coffee, eating breakfast burritos and watching lift-off preparations.

At this point, the balloons look like ordinary, albeit enormous, sheets of polyester or nylon spread over the ground.

Gulping the cold air being pumped into them, they lay on their sides and slowly bulge above the milling crowd. Just walking among those lifeless yards of polyurethane and witnessing the transformation is worth the trip.

Hot air is lighter than cold, and the real magic begins when cold air inside the balloon is heated by blasts of flame from the burners. Nudged upright by the hot air, the balloons rise slowly like sleepy children stretching themselves awake. Fully inflated these behemoths can measure up to 80 feet tall and 55 feet wide.

Suddenly, as if on cue from a cosmic conductor, the sun shoots above the hilltops, pouring golden illumination through the balloons. The effect is breathtaking, resembling hundreds of brilliant translucent gumdrops leaving the ground in a slow-motion dance and painting the sky with vivid colors.

Once airborne, the balloons can’t be steered, only raised and lowered by heating and cooling the air inside via blasts from the burners. It would seem that this would place the balloons at the whim of capricious winds.

However, since air currents vary at different altitudes, it is possible to choose the desired direction simply by finding the height at which the wind is blowing where the pilot wants to fly.

This sounds good on paper, but unfortunately there are no guarantees with this system. One of my recent landings was on a busy street, which could not be circumvented no matter what the pilot did--since the only alternative was the roof of an apartment building next to it.

At least the chase crew (those who follow on the ground in a truck to pick passengers up) was there when we came down, grabbing the basket and steadying it against any ground currents that might disrupt a smooth landing. Hey, no one ever said this was a dull sport.

Once back on the ground, World Balloon Corp., the official balloon company of the Fiesta, will help first-timers celebrate the occasion.

The usually farcical, always-fun ceremony includes a reading of the balloonists’ prayer, the presentation of an Ascension Certificate--” In hoc ascensium non dyspepsia “ (which I assume means “I did not get sick aloft”)--and a slightly unusual champagne toast, which seemed more like a baptism.

It’s all great fun, and a fitting end to an extraordinary experience.