Balloon festival taking off at fairgrounds
Event featuring 29 hot air balloons takes over Dutchess County Fairgrounds in Rhinebeck this weekend.
RHINEBECK, N.Y. » Twenty nine hot air balloons will take to the skies over Rhinebeck when the Dutchess County Fairgrounds hosts the Hudson Valley Hot Air Balloon Festival for the first time in its 27 year history.
Frank Castella, President and CEO of the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce, which is organizing and promoting the festival, estimates more than 25,000 visitors will stream in for the three-day festival which runs from Friday evening to Sunday evening.
Castella said people are driven to hot air balloons because they’re majestic.
“The mass, sheer size, colorfulness,” Castella said. “There’s a mystique about a hot air balloon.
“There are a total of 29 balloons, and over 100 launches scheduled to take place.”
Castella is no stranger to hot air balloons, having grown up around them.
“My family sponsored a hot air balloon,” Castella said.
Not strictly the traditional round shape, this group of balloons includes the 100-foot-tall, 550 pound Peanut the Elephant, and a large American flag that also happens to be a balloon, Castella said.
Castella said the flag will “glow” during the hot-air illumination at 8:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
The balloon celebrates the Dutchess County Historical Society’s Year of the Veteran and the Fourth of July.
He added that this is the balloon he’s most excited about.
Aerophone, in conjunction with the Warrior Wagon, will play patriotic tunes starting at 8 p.m. on both Friday and Saturday before the glows.
Perhaps the oddest balloon is a little boy with a sideways hat known as “Dingbat,” Castella said.
“The message is to stay in school,” Castella said. “He’s kind of the strangest little guy we have coming.”
Michelle and Roger Hooper of Hopewell Junction, are the festival’s balloon meisters.
They help ensure all the people who come with their balloons are kept happy throughout the festival and coordinate necessities like lodging arrangements, Castella said.
Other Dutchess County balloonists include Rich Hamilton and Brian Smith.
The balloonists are both private and commercial pilots, Castella said.
“They’re mostly commercial pilots who can fly paid passengers,” Castella said.
Balloon rides, which costs $250 per person, are available by advance online registration only at https://www.dcrcoc.org/balloonfesthv.org
While all the evening rides are sold out, slots are still available on some of the morning flights.
The balloons very in carrying capacity with the smallest basket holding just two passengers and the largest holding between 15-20, Castella said.
For those who want a small taste of balloon flight, tethered flights are offered.
During a tethered flight the balloons rise approximately 75-100 feet into the air but remained tied to the ground. These flights are $20 per person and are available weather permitting, throughout the festival, Castella said.
“It gives them a taste of the experience,” Castella said. “And it’s a great photo opportunity too.”
Castella admitted with the balloons being at the mercy of the wind, there can be a good deal of standing around and waiting for the weather conditions to align properly for a flight.
That’s why the festival offers a number of activities on the ground included in the admission price ranging from carnival games, to field games like giant chess to hayrides and a portable escape room offered by Headless Horseman, he added.
A craft beverage tent offers everything from fresh local Hudson Valley fresh chocolate milk to locally distilled wines and spirits, Castella said.
“Once again, we’re highlighting what the Hudson Valley has to offer,” Castella said.
Other activities include 10-minute helicopter rides by Independent Helicopters from 4-6 p.m. on Friday., and from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are $70.
Originally held in Wappingers Falls at Hudson Valley Regional Airport, formerly known as Dutchess County Airport, the festival’s format was later changed after the chamber took over it in 2000, with individual balloons stationed at sponsor locations like the Poughkeepsie Galleria Mall.
Three years ago it returned to the airport for its 25th anniversary.
“We realized the balloonists prefer a festival and flying out of one location,” Castella said.
He added that a festival is more accommodating to the crowds, brings everyone together with food and vendors and helps to build a sense of camaraderie.
A large scale festival also furthers the Chambers’ goal of bringing in a mass audience and exposing to the what the Hudson Valley has to offer, Castella said.
In the festival’s first year back at the airport it drew 5,000 people; last year that number was closer to 25,000, Castella said.
But with crowds burgeoning, Castella knew they had to find a place that could better accommodate such a large audience.
That place was the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, which has infrastructure like parking, restrooms, security and ticket booths already in place.
“Fairgrounds are made for hosting events of this magnitude and large crowds as well,” Castella said.
Castella said the airspace above also offers several advantages compared to other locations in the county.
“Wherever we’ve been, the balloons have had a challenge flying in certain directions,” Castella said. “Hot air balloons are at the mercy of the wind, they have no other power other than the hot air lifting the balloon.”
He rattled off a long list of obstacles balloonists face at the southern end of the county.
“Over a prison you can’t fly,” Castella said. “South of I-84, there’s no place to land, with very densely populated forests.
“If you head towards Beacon, there’s no place to land.”
The airport had its own set of challenges, including
avoiding air space reserved for planes, Castella said.
“When we are at the Dutchess County Fairgrounds, we have 365 degrees of flyability, which increases our chances of getting the balloons off the ground,” Castella said.
Over the years, the festival has drawn people from all over the U.S. and even as far away as Japan.
“I just received a message from India,” Castella said. “We have a balloon that is coming in from New Zealand.”
These visitors in turn stay in local hotels and dine in local restaurants, Castella said.
“That’s why a chamber of commerce does an event like this,” Castella said.
While Castella hopes tourists flock to the festival, he is also targeting locals with offerings like free admission from when the gates swing open at 5 a.m. to 9 a.m..
“It’s a community giveback,” Castella said. “Being so early in the morning, it’s mostly local people.”
People can grab something from one the vendors for breakfast and catch the 6 a.m. balloon launch, he added.
Morning yoga and pilates with views of the balloons launching will be offered at 5:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday.
“You’re not going to find many places to relax and do pilates and yoga and have balloons take off at the same time,” Castella said.