An awful lot of hot air

Several years ago I resolved that I'd visit the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, I then promptly forgot until the following year, when the pattern repeated itself. So it has been for the past three years, until this year when I finally remembered and worked in a visit on my way back to London, making a special detour via Bristol.

Bristol's an odd city. It likes to think that it's part of the South-West, when any self respecting Westcountryman will tell you otherwise and possibly shoot you for even suggesting so. It also has, I think, an unfortunate name that rather like Uttoxeter (what were they thinking?) conjures up less than appealing images. However, it's actually a surprisingly nice place which surprises me every time. I didn't have any time to walk around the city itself this time, but the youth hostel was located down on the riverside by the old docks, an area that seems to have been extensively redeveloped recently and it's become a really lovely area such that I feel a little guilty about my previous misgivings about the place.

But still, this time I wasn't there for the city, but instead for the annual Balloon Fiesta, or more correctly the International Balloon Fiesta, presumably to make it seem more important. I wasn't really sure what to expect from the event, and was a little surprised that (a) it was massive,(b) it felt more like a fairground with balloons than the other way around, and (c) you could buy food from about 100 vans, but if you wanted something healthy you were out of luck bigtime.

There are really two highlights to the event, the mass balloon launch and the night glow event, although there were other acts going including motorcycle stunts and plenty of parachute jumps and paragliding.


People say that trams have an ability to revert even the most serious bloke into his inner child, and they're probably right, but for me, balloons, especially those of the hot air variety, have a similar effect, so the launching of 72 hot air balloons within the space of 60 mins was a pretty spectacular sight to behold. I hadn't appreciated just how much work goes into getting a balloon blown up an airborne before.





After the balloons had all taken off and floated serenely away over the trees to a presumably less serene landings near the Avon gorge, I bagged what looked like a good spot and pulled out the Newsweek I purloined from the train and waited for the night glow. The night glow is the sort of thing that the local news station gets all excited about each year, and in line with most other things the local news gets excited about, I was expecting to be a little disappointed with it, but as it happened, I wasn't. After it got dark (and colder) they reinflated the balloons and equipped them with liquid fuel, and let rip in tune with the music to create a rather impressive music and light show, followed by an equally impressive fireworks extravaganza. Although some of the music choices were a little dodgy, I thought that '99 Red Balloons' was an apt choice.



Alas, there was no opportunity for me to actually go up in a balloon, a feat that I've been chasing ever since I was robbed of such a chance when I was about five at a previous local balloon fete due to 'adverse weather conditions'. Never mind that I could have died, I'm still a little bitter. But if it's taken me three years to get to the Fiesta, then I guess I may have to wait a little while longer to actually venture far enough to go up, up, and away.