Balloon festival planned for Levin
Fire Up Levin plans take-off at Labour weekend
Hot air balloons could be floating in the skies above Levin again after a lengthy absence.
A new festival, called Fire Up Levin, was well into the planning stage. Its predecessor Light Up Levin ran successfully every year from 2005 until 2016 when it was last held.
Fire Up Levin organiser and balloon enthusiast Glen Smith was heading a committee that was in the process of securing funding and sponsorship for Fire Up Levin. Labour weekend this year was locked in as the date.
Smith said when the idea for the return of a balloon festival was first floated on social media, the response was overwhelming. He had even overheard people in the supermarket talking about it.
“The balloonists are really keen to come back here, too. We were supposed to come back and do it as a bit of fun, but it has exploded,” he said.
“The event is still in the planning stages, but we are in the process of talking to everyone involved.”
Smith said 10 balloonists were confirmed already.
The original Light Up Levin event drew large crowds and included a Night Glow evening, where the balloons were grounded and lit up the night sky.
Smith said Light Up Levin and Fire Up Levin were different events. He was in talks with exotic car clubs to make the event more than balloons in the sky.
Fire Up Levin was planning to include a display of super cars including Lamborghinis, Ferraris, McLarens, and the possibility of rides in those cars, along with food stalls.
Smith himself was bitten by the ballooning bug as a youngster. His father Gill was a balloon pilot.
He went up in a balloon for the first time in 2005 at the inaugural Light Up Levin festival, and crewed for balloonists every year after that. “It just blew up from there,” he said. “I absolutely loved it. It was absolutely fantastic. I was addicted. I decided I wanted to be a pilot. I wanted to fly.”
He found it a difficult pill to swallow when Light Up Levin wound up. He missed it so much he joined the Waikato Hot Air Balloon Club and routinely caught a bus north for festivals. “It’s big up there,” he said.
There was one safety aspect that would always threaten a hot air balloon event though — weather.
“It’s better to be on the ground wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were on the ground,” he said.
“It is weather dependent. You can’t go up if it is too windy or not enough wind. You can’t go up if it’s raining.
“But you wouldn’t go fishing in Cook Strait if it was a howling gale. It’s just the same with ballooning.”
The balloons usually lift off early morning. A helium-filled small balloon is flown to give a guide to wind conditions, and launch sites are determined from there.
“It gives an indication of wind direction and speed at different altitudes,” he said.
Balloonists often played sky games, like dropping a small parachute on a designated target, or a game of chase called hare and hound, where the aim was to land as close to the lead balloon as possible.
It was almost impossible to control direction, although you could predict direction with an awareness of air currents. All pilots could control altitude though, through burning more propane gas or letting out hot air.
“You never know where you are going to land but we try and anticipate where we will end up,” he said.
An often asked question, and one thing balloonists weren’t able to do, was sell balloon rides to the general public without being licenced.
Recreational pilots don’t require a pilot’s licence, but balloonists needed a commercial balloon pilot’s licence to take paying passengers, although they could still take willing passengers, like family or friends, without charging a fee.
A comfortable flying altitude was around 600m, although balloons could get as high as 2.8km with conditions to suit.
The number of passengers allowed was weight dependent and varied from balloon to balloon.