You know how weather tends to ruin outdoor events. I didn’t think it would happen this Saturday. The sky was clear, the wind was calm, I thought it was a perfect day to drive out to the Pittsfield Balloon Rally. I was excited to see a dozen hot air balloons lift up into the sky. I was going to take great pictures!

But I arrived to find that The Rally was most likely not to happen. The wind was perfect, it was only about 1 mph. Only problem was, it was in the very wrong direction. The wind would carry the hot air balloons directly into a small but very wooden mountain.

They did launch a balloon called the Irish Rover.

But then they decided that it was too risky and just tethered the ReMax Balloon so that spectators could be given rides at $10 a head.

The ride was so popular that they inflated my favorite Balloon of the evening, Wild Ride. It had silhouettes of Giraffes and elephants on it. And it was just a really pretty hot air balloon.

They had better luck on Saturday morning, watch the video here

The hot air balloon festival is an important fundraiser for the Rotary club and it certainly attracts a crowd. I couldn’t get over the commercial aspects of the festival. Complete with greasy food vendors (major tummy ache from the fried dough) and a small midway section.

The commercial aspect of the festival bothered me a little. I wish it could have been a family event with the focus mostly on the hot air balloons. I didn’t mind the craft fair, or the rotary club booths, but I hate to see teenagers spending money they should be saving for college on overpriced oversized stuffed animals for their girlfriends. Goodness I sound old.

My full set on Flickr can be found here.