While no full flights got up for Balloon Fest 2021, both the Friday and Saturday night Glows did take place to the joy of large crowds in Foundation Park.
This year’s Chair Brad Haege says with all the weather and COVID-19 obstacles, he was pleased.
“We are very pleased on how everything went. We were able to get 2 awesome glows in, have a great attendance and put on a show for the community.”
Centralia Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marcus Holland says things were not back to normal to allow the event to go on.
“I think the one thing we need to remind everybody is we were planning this during the pandemic and we didn’t know until June 11th that we would be able to have a full event. So we had planned a lot of things so we could count people and be socially distant. That is why we had 2 entertainment stages and 2 locations for the balloon glows and more options around the community to spread out and choose what they wanted to do to stay safe.”
Balloon Liaison and Balloonist Patty Williams commended the balloonists for giving their all, especially in making the Saturday night glow come alive when it was raining less than an hour earlier.
“I think we had a great weekend. A lot of disappointments not getting all the flights off but great glows and kudos to the ground committee in the park to make that happen. There was a lot of behind the scenes efforts that go on to get the pilots in here and make sure nobody gets stuck.”
Next year’s chair is JJ DeMattei.
“Right now we are going to sit back and digest this for a couple weeks and meet and evaluate. We made a lot of changes since we took a year off and tried some new things. We will look like the finances and see how people felt and then maybe make some adjustments for next year.”
Holland says the mini-glow of five balloons in Fairview Park was a success, with long lines to see the balloons. He reports it helped the handicapped not have to get out of their vehicles in Foundation Park and those who were concerned about the large crowds. Holland feels the mini-glow will probably remain in the future for at least one night.
