Up, up and away
Strathaven Balloon Festival founder prepares for lift off
Strathaven Balloon Festival founder Gordon McAllan is preparing for lift off again this weekend.
Thousands of people are expected to fill Strathaven Park for the annual event which will run all weekend and showcase some of the most unique hot air balloons in the world.
For Gordon, it all began in 1999 at Strathaven Rugby Club with just four balloons.
A group of keen volunteers were searching for a way to boost business in the traditional town – and came up with the now worldfamous festival.
As the team searched for a plan, Gordon was introduced to aeronautical engineer Don Cameron, who he dubs “the father of modern ballooning”.
Don built balloons in his spare time before founding Cameron Balloons and after a chat, brought some friends and a batch of balloons along for the first festival.
“We managed to stop traffic on Hamilton Road, ”says Gordon. “We then thought if it was something we can keep going and we have done.”
Two decades on, the festival is a fixture in the town’s calendar.
“We couldn’t have dreamt it would have grown to an international festival that has in some ways put Strathaven and Scottish ballooning on the map,” continued Gordon.
“We also couldn’t have expected the learning curve to be so steep! When we started, none of us knew very much about ballooning all those years ago.
“Most of us were involved in some activities in the town and we had concerns about the rise of big malls in East Kilbride and Hamilton and how it would hit the small, traditional shops.
“We wanted to give them support – so we had to think of something that would bring trade into the town. We wanted to find something unusual and distinctive.”
Around 20 balloons are expected to run this year – weather permitting – with crews from Belgium set to take part. A team of 10 help put on the event every year which Gordon admits is “ridiculously small” and they have all had to learn how to understand the balloonists and put on a festival.
They work with an experienced pilot as a flight director – but Gordon calls the group “enthusiastic amateurs” who are always looking to improve.
Organisers need to raise £16,000 just to put on the event but Gordon adds he is “surprised it is so little” for the scale of it.
However, with the support of the Strathaven community, they manage to pull it off every year.
Gordon added: “Strathaven is different from a lot of festivals in that it is yards from the Common Green and the heart of the town.
“Folk can walk from the centre of town and see an international festival and it means balloonists can experience the whole town.
“They can experience a festival that is distinctly Scottish and distinctly Strathaven.
“Balloonists who have been coming here for years walk down the Common Green and can talk to people. They are familiar. It’s a really good atmosphere.
“There is no charge and no entrance fee. It doesn’t get much better than that.”