Balloon Fiesta, Post 4: Preparing for Mass Ascension

Here’s a few of the earliest balloons getting ready:

Here’s someone flaming without the balloon. There was a lot of this going on. I’m assuming they were testing their burners. Was there really that much flame that close to that many people in the dark? Yep.

The mass ascension is the biggest event. Hundreds of balloons are laid out on an enormous field in the pre-dawn, inflated, and sent aloft right after dawn.

It’s a crazy, crowded, madhouse. The field is full of enormous amounts of balloon fabric, meters of tether line, and huge open flame burners. Through all that, the crowd is allowed to wander freely.

Here’s a basket loaded on the back of a truck. These baskets hang from the underside of the balloon and people go up in them. Yeah, seriously. Tourists can go – I think it costs a few hundred dollars for a balloon ride. Right at the top of this photo you can see the bottom of the metal burners.

Here’s a video of a tourist getting into a basket:

Here they are laying a balloon out. Some of them had a big piece of fabric to lay the balloon onto (like this one). Others just lay them in the grass. The balloon handlers are pretty cavalier about the burners (What? Open flame? Toddlers? Whatever). But boy, you do not step on their balloon fabric!

Here’s a video of a ballon spread out on the grass. In this video it’s still quite early in the morning, and still dark out.

Here you can see the burners on top of the basket.

Balloons start out by being inflated with just air with fans. What you’re looking at here is the bottom of the basket in the foreground, and the fan to the left.

Then they start the burners up. Oh, hey, John must have taken this photo because I think that’s the backside of me, in the blue jacket and brown boots. John and I usually take about an equal number of photos when we’re on trips or at events, and I combine them at downloading. So I never know which of us has taken which photos, unless I see one of us in them.

Here’s a video of a balloon righting itself:

A little crowded. 

Everyone was wandering around with their faces to their phone camera (like me). All the while dodging tether lines.

See the lines going across the photo? Those are meters long – hard to tell where they are starting and ending. Those lines start on the ground and jerk upward in sudden movements as the balloons inflate.

Lines on the ground:

Here’s some guys holding lines as their balloons inflate:

Here’s videos that show how much was going on:

Rainbow Ryders is one of the companies that will take tourists up in the balloons.

 

Here’s another short video of the chaos:

Here’s a cool video of a balloon righting in midst of a big crowd, note the lines from another balloon suddenly rising part-way into the video.

Here’s that same balloon, when the basket goes from it’s side to upright.

Here’s a series of photos showing a balloon righting itself on the very edge of the field, away from the crowds. In hindsight I should have spent more time out at the edge of the fields, because I got a little overwhelmed in middle of it all. Plus, handy porta-potties, lol!