Bristol Balloon Fiesta

 Gemma happens to be a pretty avid hot air balloonist. In fact, she used to be the President of the her university's Ballooning society.  Now, every now and then, these krazy kats get together and have a bit of meet and float around where ever the wind my take them.

Balloons landing at a chocolate factory .

Do this regularly in the same place often enough and it can become a fiesta. The Bristol Balloon Fiesta just happens to be the biggest balloon fiesta in Europe and I got to head along with a team! Fiesta's are more than just balloon flying as I thought it was. Nope, it turns out that people come from miles around just to watch other people fly...

Anyone got a light?

...and to set up a carnival. There were stalls and rides and food and beer and music. Even better I had a balloonists pass, which meant I got to camp in the balloonists colony and hang out in the pilots bar (didn't get to fly though). 

 And a giant little tikes car!

Throughout the day the were also some displays, including aerial demonstration by a British fight Jet, a hurricane, a spitfire, and some dude with a parachute and a big-arse fan.

I believe it is called a Mirage.

So, what did we do? The first morning I helped set up their University of Loughborough balloon and went then went to pick them up (did I mention the drop-zone was at a chocolate factory), wandered the carnival, and drank a lot of beer. 

Filling the balloon with air.

Once evening hit, though, the real party began; NightGlo. NightGlo is a genius idea, and whoever came up with it deserves a PhD. It essentially utilises the amazing property of fire to create light. This is placed inside inflated material, commonly known as a balloon, to create a 'glowing bulb'.

Baiky and I at NightGlo!

All the pilots involved follow a script and set their burners off in time to music that is played across the carnival space. It was epic. 

Pictured: Epicness!

After this is was back to the pilots bar; we needed beer to help us make the unadvised decision to continue camping despite the apparent hurricane warnings!

 

Plus I got an inspirational idea while I was there.