Crane your next toward the sky in May next year and you’ll likely see something you’ve never seen in the skies above Mudgee before, a swathe of hot air balloons filling the horizon.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The Mudgee Hot Air Balloon Festival is running form Saturday May 25 to Friday May 31, 2019 and it’s promised to be something the region has never seen before.
The Mudgee Guardian spoke with Michelle Wills, Marketing Manager at Balloon Aloft, the same company that has been ballooning guests around Mudgee for many years about what you can expect from the festival.
“The event will kick off with the inaugural Mudgee night glow on Saturday night at Glen Willow and we’re hoping to attract around 5000 people to the event,” she said.
The night glow involves lighting up nine hot air balloons at night, all choreographed to music in a spectacular display of light and sound.
“All this will culminate with an amazing live fireworks display. It’ll be a real family-friendly event with food and wine markets on the night as well as live acts, so we’re hoping to make it a major event for Mudgee.” Michelle said.
“We really believe it’s such a beautiful place to go ballooning and we think this event will really showcase that.”
“The following day we will be having ‘balloons and bubbles’ at Blue Wren Winery and that will involves a competition where the pilots who will be competing the national balloon championships - which will be held during the week-long hot air balloon festival - compete in a key grab competition,”
Put simply, the ‘key grab’ involves 25 balloonists aiming at target. On that target will be a large pole with a key and the competition is won by the pilot who grabs the key first.
“This is the first time it’s being held in Mudgee and we’re really hoping to make it a major event by building these other elements.”
“We’re hoping that the people of Mudgee will really take to it and we will be able to stage it again in another two years.” Michelle said.
“We really believe it’s such a beautiful place to go ballooning and we think this event will really showcase that.”
The event has been in the works for a number of months with the Balloon Aloft team working with Mid-Western Regional Council, Mudgee Tourism and Blue Wren along the way.
The winners of the hot air ballooning championships will go on to compete at the world championships later in the year.
Balloon Aloft will continue to update their Facebook event as the festival progresses so people have a chance to watch the balloons take off and land each day of the competition.
