People travelled for miles to participate in and to witness the 10th Anniversary of the Heritage Inn International Balloon Festival in High River, Alberta, from September 24 to 29.
The festival began in 2013 to help lift spirits after High River was damaged in a large flood. Since then it has risen into a major tourist event that books virtually every hotel room in town, organizers said.
“It was a successful event. We had more pilots and more balloons and, well, the weather we couldn’t do anything about. Everything else was in our control and we managed to get 31 balloons to come to High River for this year and register. What we are really proud of is the number of shapes we had. Those are the crowd pleasers. We also got most of our sponsors up on those first, and only, two flights, so that’s good. Our landowners have been fantastic, once again. Getting volunteers is always a challenge, especially during the week, so we are already looking at what to do about that for next year and see what we can do to entice more people to come to High River to help with the festival,” said Jamie Kinghorn, High River town councillor and Heritage Inn International Balloon Festival founder.
Kinghorn flies the purple and yellow balloon, Eye of Ra, and said his flying time was fantastic.
“We were a little rusty on the first flight but we did OK on the second flight. Dale Ritchie took over my duties as the hare this year and he did a pretty good job. He had big shoes to fill but you know, he did alright. He’s a really experienced pilot and did a great job for us,” said Kinghorn, who finished 15th overall.
First place this year went to Graham Luckett, a 68-year-old from Fort Collins, Colorado, flying his multi-coloured “Tally Ho II” balloon.
