Bristol International Balloon Fiesta flew 30 balloons on the morning of Monday 1 August from two secret locations, as nominated by the people of Bristol, as part of the event’s incredibly popular community launches.
After the huge success of last year’s Fiesta community launches with Costa Coffee, which saw hot air balloons take off from discrete locations across Bristol, over 1,000 entries were made for this year’s edition. Calling out to bring the balloons to their communities, the two chosen locations were Vassell’s Park in Fishponds and Cleve Rugby Club in Emerson’s Green.
In true community launch style, Fiesta fans will have woken up to the announcement of exactly where they could catch sight of this morning’s very special ascent - letting local residents of Vassell’s Park and Cleve Rugby Club know that they were the lucky ones this year.
Balloon Spotters will have looked up into the sky this morning and caught a glimpse of the brand new Huboo Fulfilment Balloon, from award winning order fulfilment for eCommerce sellers Huboo, which is sponsoring this year’s Fiesta Sky Lounge, as well as the signature stripes of leading fashion brand, Paul Smith.
Long-time favourites including the bright yellow Thatchers balloon, SoGlos Cricket, Safari Black Panther, the red, white and blue Cameron Balloon and many more took to the Bristol skies at 6am Monday morning.
One of those 1,000 Bristol residents nominating their preferred location was Lori Streich, along with the Friend’s of Oldbury Court Estate in Vassell’s Park, who chose to request to see the balloons take off from the iconic Fishponds location.
Reasons for nominating this location in particular included the green space being a beauty spot with several big flat fields, which is ideal for balloon launches as well as the many families in the area with children on their school summer holidays experiencing this treat in the skies.
The landmark partnership between the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta and the Nation’s favourite coffee shop, Costa Coffee, once again brought this special ballooning event back to the city ahead of the Fiesta, ahead of its return to its original home at Ashton Court Estate for the first time since before the pandemic.
Costa Coffee were on-site fuelling pilots for the early morning ascents - providing coffee and will be bringing their Costa Experience Pods back to the city this summer where Fiesta fans will be able to grab a number of Costa’s brand new The Big Chill iced frappes, as well as their ever-popular hot drinks.
They will also be hosting a huge range of entertainment with special guests to keep Fiesta-goers fuelled throughout the weekend. With Festival Faces giving attendees a free glitter make-over, Lucy Balloons creating brilliant balloon sculptures, live music from Nehanda and book signings at the Waterstones Store from authors Fiona Longmuir and Duncan Beedie, the weekend is set to be one to remember.
Christoper Allcock, Chair of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta said: "We are thrilled with this morning’s community launches, which were a huge success. It’s so important to us that everyone gets to experience the Balloon Fiesta, especially communities that rarely get balloons overhead. For these communities, it can be tricky to make it all the way to South Bristol for the Fiesta, and to see the joy on their faces when the balloons take off is exactly why we do this. We are so thankful to Costa Coffee for partnering with us to make this happen.”
Festival organisers encourage people to walk or cycle to the Fiesta where possible as there are no shuttle buses this year. Parking spaces are still available to purchase online and must be pre-booked ahead of time.
For more information on the Fiesta Fortnight head to http://bristolballoonfiesta.co.uk/ and follow Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or Facebook.
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