NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION - GATINEAU BALLOON FESTIVAL

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My love of hot air balloons began when I moved to Ottawa and discovered that one of North America’s largest balloon festivals is held annually from neighbouring Gatineau, QC which, along with Ottawa, makes up Canada’s National Capital Region. The “Festival des Montgolfières” is held there on the weekend preceding Labour Day, Aug 28 to Sept 1 this year. Balloons come in all shapes and sizes from all over Canada and the USA, as well as other countries such as Brazil, Germany, Australia and Japan. Today there are no limits to their colour, design and size, and fanciful shapes adorn our skies every year. I’m going to show you some of the more colourful ones, but first, a bit of history ….



The hot air balloon was invented by the Montgolfier brothers, who made the first manned flight in Paris in 1783: thus the French name “montgolfière”. The first North American flight took place near Washington in 1793.



Once aloft there isn’t much the pilot can do to steer it: visibility, wind direction and strength are of paramount importance, thus ballooning is a very “iffy” sport. IF the air is cool … IF there’s no fog … IF there are no storms in the vicinity … IF the winds aren’t over 12 knots (20 kph) – only then can they fly. Lots of “ifs” and potential complications, but so much fun to be had when everything comes together. No wonder balloonists travel a circuit to dozens of festivals all over North America and abroad on the chance they and their audiences will be able to experience the thrill of this silent hands-on type of flying. For everything you’d ever want to know about balloons and ballooning, go to http://www.hotairballoon.com/ .



Every year more than 200,000 people attend this festival, because in addition to watching regular and specialty balloons fly, and perhaps taking a “tethered flight” or even going for a ride as a passenger, there are three days of top-notch entertainment with pop concerts, a midway, a strong man competition, a magician, buskers, games for kiddies, and much more. If you’re interested in attending now or next year, go to http://montgolfieresgatineau.com/en/ .



So here is a retrospect of some of the more colourful balloons I’ve chased and photographed at this festival: giant and specialty ones, and individual ones that I chased and was lucky enough to catch. I hope you enjoy my photos and that they may inspire you to start chasing balloons too.

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