Albuquerque, NM Oct. 2 (BUS): Hundreds of hot air balloons blasted Saturday morning, ushering in an annual festival that has drawn pilots and spectators from around the world to New Mexico’s soaring desert for 50 years now.
As one of the most photographed events in the world, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has become an economic driver for the state’s largest city and a rare – and colorful – opportunity for enthusiasts to have on hand as giant balloons are deflated and inflated, AP reports.
Three of the original pilots who participated in the first feast in 1972 and other family members are among the attendees this year. That year, 13 balloons were released from an open plaza near a shopping center on what was then the Albuquerque Rim. It has since grown into a multi-million dollar production.
Pilot Jane Dennis, 78, remembers the snowstorm that nearly made him miss the first festival. He had to rearrange his flight plans from Michigan so that he could reach Albuquerque in time.
Dennis, who flew under the alias “Captain Fairweather,” said the weather was perfect when he arrived in New Mexico. He was quoted at the time as saying that he brought good weather with him.
It’s been in trouble again, with the pilots hoping expectations for the rest of the opening weekend will be fair.
“The airships are contagious,” said Dennis, describing being as high as drifting in a dream, and quietly observing the countryside below.
This year will see Romain Muller’s first flight at the festival. He pilots a special shaped airship that is modeled after a chalet on the top of a famous Swiss sled. One of his goals would be to fly over the Rio Grande and get low enough to dip a gondola in the river.
“That’s my plan,” he said with a wide grin, acknowledging that it’s not always easy to fly a balloon.
The only thing that helps, he said, is the phenomenon known as the Albuquerque box — when winds blow in opposite directions at different altitudes, allowing skilled pilots to return a balloon to a point close to the take-off point.
Dennis said it took a few years of the festival to realize the predictability of wind patterns that allowed the balloons to stay close to the launch field, giving spectators a great show.
Tens of thousands of people crowded into the square on Saturday, with eyes wide and their necks raised as they tried to immerse themselves in the spectacle.
Denise Federker MacDonald was a passenger in her father’s balloon during the first holiday. She made the flight from Colorado to participate in the 1972 reactivation of that flight on Friday. Her father, Matt Widderkahr, was one of the first 10 hot air balloon pilots in the United States and set several world records for distance and duration and built a successful advertising company with his fleet of balloons.
Federker MacDonald, who went on to set her own records before becoming a commercial pilot, wore one of her father’s faded inflated jackets and stuck pieces of cardboard to him as she lifted the balloon she was flying.
She recalls a childhood full of experiences that centered on blowing balloons.
“I remember the first time I was in balloons with all of them standing up and inflating and not being able to see the sky because it was all colorful cloth. Then the other thing was the first balloon glowing at night. Oh, my God,” she said, “There were so many first things that I took it for granted at the time, but I really look back and appreciate it so much now.”
The feast grew to include a cadre of European balloonists. More than 20 countries were represented this year, including Switzerland, Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Mexico, Taiwan and Ukraine.
It also serves as the starting place for the Gas Balloon Challenge Race of America, one of the world’s premier distance races for gas balloons.