Festival is set to take off
Final preparations are being made for Strathaven Balloon Festival.
The event will be held in the awardwinning Strathaven Park from Friday to Sunday, August 23 to 25.
Balloons arrive on the Friday and, if the weather allows, there will be balloon flights just after 6pm.
There will be balloon launches on the Saturday and Sunday at around 6.30am and 6pm.
The Sky Masters, from Skydive Strathallan will perform on the Saturday and Sunday at 3pm, weather permitting.
And the Evening Glow event will take place on Saturday at 9pm, with the brightly-coloured balloons illuminating the night sky.
Throughout Saturday and Sunday there will be all sorts of entertainment in the park from 1pm including a family fun day, music, dancers, birds of prey, a fun fair, stalls galore, classic vehicles and much, much more.
Admission is free. For more, you can head to strathavenballoonfestival.co.uk or visit their Facebook page.
Organiser and festival founder Gordon Mcallan said: “I’ve been daft enough to be doing it from the very start and it’s quite staggering how it has grown in size since the opening years.
“It is now one of the biggest events in the Lanarkshire calendar.
“On the Saturday last year it was a brilliant, sunny day. We had more people than ever with around 25,000 spectators coming into the park.
“It’s a major, free, spectator event. We would like people to give us a wee donation by paying for the programme if possible though, but we have great support.
“For example, we rely tremendously on the local farming community to rescue our balloons. They always have a pleasant manner even when people accidentally land on their private land.
“It’s a community event that helps people find out a wee bit about the town, people often assume it’s a pulled together by a big organisation.”