2015 Lincoln Balloon Festival LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.COM September 1, 2015 Page 45
Adding the fly-in to the launch brought a new aspect
to the Saturday night event, and kept spectators on
their toes as they watched the inflation of the balloons
on the ground, but also kept one eye on the sky,
hoping to be the first on to spy a balloon coming in.
When the balloons on the ground were finally fully
inflated, they began one-by-one, floating away. In the
baskets, pilots and passengers waved at the mass of
people below and were rewarded for their efforts by
loud cheers.
When many of the balloons had taken off from the
airport, Darth Vader chose to make his appearance.
The pilot and crew held off on inflating Darth
purposefully. As the large mask took up as much
space as two or three of the other balloons, guests
gathered around him watching in wonder as the gray
and black shape inflated.
When fully inflated, the balloon lifted off the ground
a few feet and floated only slightly above the crowd.
Darth was tethered so he couldn’t escape and remained
floating just a few feet above the ground for several
minutes until the other balloons started returning from
their evening flight and setting up for the glow.
After the pilots had taken off from the airport, there
was a lull in activity on the grass runway. The break
offered many the opportunity to check out the events
going on in the midway area and grab their favorite
"fair food” to enjoy while they waited for the balloons
to return.
On Friday evening glow due to high winds there had
been only a small number of balloons participate, but
the winds died down on Saturday and all the balloons
were invited to the glow.
Most accepted the invitation, and for the night show
there was an impressive number of balloons lined up
to ‘glow’ and ‘flicker’ for the audience. At the urging
of Kurtz, balloons did "all glows
" "waves" and "flickers." There were also special
glows for veteran pilots, women pilots, and pilots from
other states, as well as Illinois.
Much to the delight of everyone in attendance the
glow this year also seemed to last longer than it has
past years,.
At approximately 8:30 p.m., Kurtz announced that the
balloons would be coming down at the discretion of
the pilots. He encouraged the pilots to do what they
felt comfortable with either continue to glow or go
ahead and turn out the lights and say goodnight.
As the fun ended on the grass runway, there was still
plenty to do on the airport grounds. Live music and
carnival rides continued throughout the evening, food
vendors were open and dolling out their wares, and a
beer garden was available for those of legal age.
The V.I.P. tent offered a fabulous meal catered by
local restaurant owner John Guzzardo, and the tent
filled quickly with pilots, festival sponsors and
special guests who enjoyed a variety of pasta dishes,
vegetables, bread, and the Guzzardo’s signature,
carved to order beef and ham.
With the festival being a stand-alone event this year,
Saturday night marked the end of the festivities.
For the staff of the Logan County Alliance and the
Lincoln/Logan County Chamber of Commerce,
Monday will be a day for a short sigh of relief before
starting the work of planning for next year. For the
rest of us it will be a day of remembering the fun
we had, and marking our calendars so we can start
counting down the 362 days to the 30th Annual
Balloon Festival.
[Nila Smith]
