Balloon festival takes to skies near Trump golf course

Women help deflate a balloon with a painting of the United States Constitution during the first day of the QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning on July 28, in Readington

Township, NJ. (AP) A balloon with a painting of the US Constitution is among those that will fly in the skies near President Donald Trump’s New Jersey golf course during a festival this weekend.

The 35th annual New Jersey Festival of Ballooning started Friday at the Solberg Airport in Readington. That’s about seven miles from Trump’s Bedminster golf course.

Organizers had to plan for the possibility of flight restrictions and other security concerns from a potential presidential visit. Trump has a home on the golf course.

Trump is not scheduled to be there this weekend. There is a flight restriction in place from Aug 3-20 that means planes can’t land or takeoff from the airport.

The festival includes hundreds of balloons and musical performances by Pat Benatar, George Thorogood and Plain White T’s.

For 35 years, organizers of New Jersey’s biggest hot-air balloon festival have made preparations by lining up musical acts and getting ready to fill the skies over rolling hills and horse farms. This year, they had to deal with the Secret Service. Organizers began to plan for the possibility of flight restrictions and other security concerns late last year.

“Anytime you do an outdoor festival you have to have the theory for ‘hope for the best but prepare for the worst,’” said Howard Freeman, executive producer of the event. “Preparing for a potential temporary flight restriction by the POTUS has enabled us to learn a lot more about preparation for that.”

Freeman said organizers have met with the Secret Service three times and they’ve been told they’ll be able to fly the balloons, even if the president was at his course about seven miles away.

There is a temporary flight restriction set up for the area around the golf course from Aug 3 to 20, but there is no sign that Trump is heading to Bedminster this weekend, allowing organizers to breathe a sigh of relief.

If Trump were in town, the balloon pilots and riders would go through security screening run by the Transportation Security Administration and Secret Service, Freeman said. (AP)