Great weather on Friday and Saturday resulted in what is believed to be record crowds from this year’s Centralia Balloon Fest.
Centralia Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Marcus Holland was pleased.
“We had record crowds. We know we had over 10,000 people Friday night, over 20,000 people on Saturday night and then Sunday a good crowd even though there was excessive heat we estimate over 5,000 people. Having kids activities free on Sunday draws more people so they can shop and make our vendors happy. Unfortunately because of the heat the balloons weren’t able to fly. We had a lot of great balloon glows and flights, the sponsors are happy and seems like everybody is happy.”
Holland says the changes also appeared to have worked. He says not opening the park until three on Saturday helped with the long stretch of time when balloons were not in the park. Holland says moving the stage to the main part of the event allowed more interaction with the balloonist and entertainers. He reports they will work to have more food vendors next year to shorten lines.
Patty Williams once again coordinated fellow pilots.
“Started on Tuesday and we flew enough flights to get 35 of our media, committee members, new committee members who have never flown. Flew our flight Friday night and Saturday morning had the park filled with over 20,000 for the balloon glow so overall I’d say Balloonfest was 100%.”
Williams says unfortunately strong upper winds prevented a Sunday morning flight and heat indexes of over 100 degrees made it too hot for local balloonists to launch on Sunday night.
This year’s chair Sharon Schwartz is also pleased.
“Just getting to see all the balloons up and crowds coming in, and everybody loving it. And last night’s Veteran’s Flight was awesome and amazing. And just everybody in the park’s reaction to that.”
Schwartz also thanked all the volunteers that she estimated topped 500 who make the event possible on top of the 50 committee members.
Next year’s chair is Rob Jackson.
“I’m a green person so you can look forward to green shirts and logo’s.”
But exactly what the logo will be has not yet been decided. Jackson feels the changes made this year were successful and will likely be kept in place, but says those decisions will have to be made by the entire committee.
Saturday night Balloon Glow. Photo by Austin Williams.
Balloons air up for the Saturday night Balloon Glow. Photo by Austin Williams.
The CN train makes its way around Foundation Park. Photo by Austin Williams.
The large stage for entertainment and the balloon announcers in the middle of the activity was a hit with attendees. Photo by Austin Williams.
Large crowd gathers around Catfish Pond for the Saturday night Balloon Glow. Photo by Bruce Kropp.
