Balloon Festival Oct 12

This morning, we skipped the predawn activities and shuttled to the mass ascension .  As yesterday, the crowds were huge, and TV coverage was there (see camera stands in background).

Some balloons arrive in pickups and some in larger vans.  After lift-off, the vehicles then become the chase vehicles. 

Balloon envelopes are first unrolled (some crews use tarps) and partly filled with air from a fan or blower.  Today was a bit windy (10 knots), so about a third of the crews chose to repack and hope for better tomorrow.

Before applying th propane burner, the envelope is filled using a strong fan.

The guy in the middle of the picture is holding a rope attached to the top of the balloon, and as it inflates, he guides the balloon to keep it straight

 We did see a good variety of balloons.

A few of the balloons were football-shaped.  These elongated ones are shaped to allow rapid climb or descend to catch wind currents of different directions.

We returned to the field around in the late afternoon  for the "Glodeo" again.  This was Saturday and there had been a concert at the field, so there were multitudes of people. This time we walked among the balloons as the crews were inflating them.  Even though many crews did not fly this morning, all were there for the evening event.

A beautiful sunset.

We left before the fireworks so we wouldn't get caught in the crowds, but we could see them from our campground.