2016 Balloon Festival

2016 Balloon Festival another great memory because...

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[August 29, 2016]  Twenty eight - that's the number of year's the Lincoln Balloon Festival has been going and growing.

From its humble beginnings of a few balloons setup to draw people into downtown during the annual Lincoln Art Fair, the festival has outgrown several sites to become one of the largest and best attended balloon fests in the Midwest, and it has a farther reaching good reputation with balloonists.

Moving to the Logan County Airport in 2005, the expansive grounds made provision for a multitude of ever-changing family friendly activities and entertainment. Plenty of vendors with delicious food line the entry taxiway. A stage on the opposite end of the grounds hosts afternoon and late evening live bands enjoyed by young adults. And the venue permits close-up parking to all activities in one location.

The festival's diversity provides enough alternatives that even when the weather intrudes on the main feature, hot air balloons, those attending can still have a pleasurable and satisfying experience.

The festival's continued success can largely be attributed to its organizers who begin a critical review right after each year's event and begin right away planning how to make the next better. Work goes on all year.

It is also the volunteers, hundreds during the event, who make it a success. Many commit a precious few hours of their time to assist in preparations, manning the grounds, or in cleanup; some are there all day each day performing various tasks.

And there are a number of extraordinary individuals who dedicate themselves as volunteers to making it all happen. They spend extra long days setting up. They are there at all hours during, and come back afterward for the clean up; and they do it year after year, happily if you don't happen to ask them past their point of exhaustion.

If you have ever planned, conducted and cleaned-up after a party of say, 20 people, well imagine doing that for thousands. It is a big deal. Just laying out the roads and parking in a field, conducting traffic flow, and other logistics are a major undertaking.

The volunteers do it for our community.

And then really, there are the spectators. What's a festival without guests. They matter. Those who come for the very first time, often traveling a distance, are trusting that a good experience awaits for them and their family, and that their comfort and safety have been taken into consideration.

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Let's not forget all those who come year after year, bring their families and friends to look for something new to enjoy, and to take in the spectacular balloon launches and glows that are the highlight of the festival.

Years past, visitors would go home and tell others about their experience. Now as you walk the grounds, you will hear and see people on their cell phones talking and texting directions, "You have just got to see this. Come now. You'd don't want to miss it."

We haven't even touched on the balloonists, what they go through to get here and fly; what is done to make their experience a good one - arrangements for refueling propane, road maps, breakfasts, pilot briefings, a balloon meister to coordinate launches, agreements with local farmers and landowners for landing - just to name a few details. It is no simple matter. That many of the same balloon pilots and their families come and return time and again is a testament to the years of goodwill that has been built through dedicated hard work.

For more on the Balloon Festival workings at the Logan County Airport, this 2013 article provides more insight on what it takes to put on the festival, but it would take a book and then some, to give credit to all whom it is due.

Balloon fest: 25 years and going up - Volunteers make it work

This is but a teeny tiny glimpse into what has made the Lincoln Balloon Festival a greater success year after year... 28 years now, and counting.

Congratulations and thank you to the Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce, event sponsors, and the countless volunteers, for all your effort and support of the festival and to our community.

All the staff of Lincoln Daily News salutes you
 

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