The Changing Face of Balloon Festivals

It was September 1982, Plano, Texas. I was attending my first balloon festival. There were perhaps 20 or 30 balloons, pilots and crew participating. There were perhaps another 50 or more spectators gathered in the park that served as a launch field for this Saturday morning flight. In a short hour it seemed it was all over. The balloons had launched, flown away and there was little else to do. There were no food booths, no crafts fair, no entertainment; just balloons. Oh they would be back for an afternoon launch but at 7:30 in the morning that seemed a long time off. This year the Plano Balloon Festival will draw tens of thousands of spectators over its three day run. There are at least two entertainment stages, one of Texas' largest arts & crafts fairs, a children's entertainment complex and more. Anyone having attended that 1982 event, its third year, would hardly recognize the 1995 edition as the same festival.

Most balloon festivals that have been around for ten or more years can track their origins to similar circumstances as those in Plano. A group of local balloonists deciding to get together for a weekend of largely social fun and flying. They would invite a few of their friends with balloons to visit for the weekend and violˆ!, you had a balloon festival, race, rally or what have you. Deals might be made with a local hotel and propane company for rooms and fuel but there would be little else in the way of amenities.

For the purpose of this report Balloon Life interviewed organizers of balloon festivals large and small, old and new. Without exception, each pointed to the evolution of balloon events into true outdoor family- oriented festivals as the number one change of the past two decades. Quite simply they tell an identical story-that just having balloons inflate, launch and fly away is no longer enough to make a festival. Spectators and sponsors demand more.

"What we have had to do as organizers," says Ron Crick, Executive Director of the Oldsmobile Balloon Classic Illinois, "is accept the fact that, to bring people out early in the morning expecting them to pay money for something they could see for free from along the roadside, we've got to develop other things for them to do. Generally balloon races have become married to other types of things, whether it's a craft show, river festival, or in our case a community festival where we put a bunch of attractions into the mix.

"What happens then is the balloons become a component of the event, but not the entire event themselves. Of course we still recognize the balloons are the stars of the event and we just patch the other attractions around them."

While other attractions are important it is equally important to consider the type of spectator or crowd those attractions will bring to the event. At Greenville, South Carolina's Freedom Weekend Aloft entertainment, nightly music concerts, are the event's mainstay attraction, after the balloons. Executive Director Keri Hall says it has become evident over the event's 14 year history that appropriate entertainment has to be selected.

"We have to be careful who we choose as entertainment," explains Hall, "because we know who the stars of the event are, they are the balloons. Our market research shows us that our spectators come first to see balloons and we want to be a ballooning/family event. Whatever entertainment group we select, the crowd they draw has to merge with our families and balloon fans. We don't want an entertainment group to bring in a crowd that interrupts that family atmosphere."

Still it seems that no matter how much entertainment, how many craft booths and even with a plethora of food booths, people still show up at odd hours demanding to see balloons.

"We try to give them a little bit of everything but we still find it necessary to spend time educating our spectators," says Ann Doyle, executive director of the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning. "We find that we have to go over and over the weather requirements and the fact that balloons can't fly at midday. Inevitably though you get someone who shows up at two in the afternoon and now it's four and they still haven't seen a balloon."

For many festivals this demand of spectators to see more and more of the balloons has lead to other changes that are quickly becoming more commonplace. One is the mid-day "fluff and puff" or "blow and show." Call it what you will, it's the request of organizers for balloonists to volunteer to go out and just cold inflate, roll the envelope around, stand it up if you can-but somehow, someway put on a show.

Of course the master of getting the most out of the balloons is the granddaddy of festivals, the Kodak Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. Veteran balloonists can remember when a trip to Albuquerque meant nine days of morning flights, a few parties, and lots of free time to shop, sleep and party. Then came the Sunday evening balloon glow, then the Thursday and Friday afternoon Special Shapes Rodeo, then the Mini-Glow on the second weekend Saturday night and more.

Second only to Albuquerque is Danville, Illinois' Oldsmobile Balloon Classic which introduced, amid much controversy, the first Night Flight and this year will introduce the first Dawn Patrol Championships. For change to be successful it is important not to be too parochial in your thinking. For example, remember when the Indianapolis 500 refused to allow their race to be broadcast live on television for fear it would hurt their gate receipts? Today millions more people watch the greatest spectacle in racing than ever before and the on-site crowds have never been larger.

For events of a smaller scale it is still important to get the most out of the balloons for the dollar. Rob and Jetta Schantz organize a variety of events under the umbrella of Balloon Tour America.

"One of the things we're going to have to do more often is split the field of balloons (half launching from the field and the other half flying in)," explains Rob Schantz, "because we're feeling the pressure of sponsors, vendors and spectators who want to see more of the balloons. We know the pilots don't like it and we'll work to keep it as fair as possible, but we have very little choice. We've tried to find someone and pay them to bring their balloon out and tether it during the day, but most pilots aren't interested," Schantz says.

Change can come from many sources. Pilots, spectators, sponsors, vendors, organizers and others all impact the evolution of balloon events. Often two or more groups may work to instill a change even if their motives for the change are independent of the others'. For example, spectators want to see more of the balloons and vendors want the crowd to stay longer. These motives are responsible for changes we've discussed such as the split-field competition and the fluff and puff demonstrations. As it becomes evident such a change is inevitable, then the pilots, who may or may not like the change, can impact it nonetheless. Consider this scenario:

1. An organizer is faced with vendors who want the balloons to remain on the launch field longer. Why? To hold the crowd longer and give them a better opportunity to sell their wares.
   
2. The spectator who has paid entry to the festival wants to see balloons for more than a 15-30 minute launch.
   
3. The pilots want the organizer to provide some recognition or prizes for crews.

As this move is on to require more and more of the balloonists, organizers insist they are asking for more from sponsors in order to provide more to the pilots. Indeed the one thing that has not changed in all the years is that pilots expect to be compensated. After all, they have a sizeable investment at stake.

"It's important that pilots be compensated, and compensated fairly," says Dan Sherrill who organizes a variety of events including Baltimore's Preakness Celebration Balloon Festival. "I know many events pay pilots just $100 for flying an envelope banner," says Sherrill, "but my events pay them $500. It's been my experience that if you compensate pilots fairly, you have little trouble getting their cooperation no matter what you ask them to do."

One form of compensation available to pilots that has all but disappeared from balloon festivals is selling paid rides. Few events around the country allow pilots to freelance selling rides, even though a few years ago that virtually guaranteed a pilot they could spend an expense-free, if not a profitable weekend at almost any festival. Those events that do offer rides to the public are increasingly doing so through a ride concessionaire. But New Jersey's Doyle says, don't get the impression that this is a profit center for the organizers.

"Of the $175 we charge for a balloon ride at our event," says Doyle, "we pay $140 to the pilot. Then we have to cover a tremendous amount of administrative work up front to take reservations over the phone, to process credit card payments, and there is setting up the tent, tables, chair, electricity and other on-site needs. We look at it philosophically as a service to our patrons and our pilots, but it is not a money-making venture for us."

To compensate pilots means more money from sponsors and here is where another major change is taking place. Now that balloon festivals are coming into their own as established family-oriented festivals, seldom is local level funding sufficient. Organizers are now faced with competing in the much larger arena of outdoor sports marketing for regional and national sponsorship dollars. Jodi Baugh, Marketing Director of the Kodak Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta says too few festivals, including her own, are prepared for that.

"This year we went to a sports and marketing entertainment agency and had them do a property analysis to determine what are we worth as an entertainment event," says Baugh. "Television has its Neilson ratings, radio has its Arbitron, but we had no way of telling our cost per thousand, cost per impression... the type of marketing questions the sponsors always ask. Now we have that information. Now we know what value our event holds, of what value our licensed products are, of what value our ticket backs are, etc.

"Too many events still don't understand marketing for sponsorships. They begin with a budget of, say $50,000, and then work backwards to raise that money. In the future, more and more events will have to work at establishing value in the product they offer sponsors," says Baugh. Baugh agrees with Sherrill that it is important to compensate pilots and noted that Fiesta has increased its travel money for pilots in 1995 from $100 to $200 each.

Regardless of how the money is used, Ron Crick says you cannot overestimate the importance of sponsorship support. "From a business background we have learned that you cannot depend on gate receipts to keep a festival going. You have to have sponsorship dollars. Whether it is one major sponsor, several minor sponsors or a bunch of little sponsors you have to have that financial support."

Of course not all change is positive. In recent years there has been a shift of competitive pilots toward flying smaller and smaller balloons, in an attempt to gain optimum competitive performance. Jetta Schantz voiced the concern this has brought to many organizers.

"The manufacturers all say you can carry a pilot and two people in these smaller balloons, but few pilots will. Now I am faced with having to split sponsor rides (BTA requires each pilot fly two passengers, usually on one flight) and even asking sponsors for their weights before booking a ride. This is yet another detail we as organizers have to worry about and sometimes it can lead to an embarrassing situation. We would like not to require sponsor rides, but until a sponsor comes forward who doesn't want them, the best we can do is hold these rides to a minimum.

"I don't think any pilot should be expected to fly six or seven people, but we all, organizers and balloonists, have to take care of the sponsors or there will be no event where pilots can come and compete for big prize money," says Schantz.

And speaking of prize money, that too is a change that has emerged over the last several years. In discussing the advent of prize money all of the organizers felt it has been a positive influence though one did admit that prize money often brings out a new level of pettiness in some pilots. More importantly, the organizers agreed that prize money is helping to better define events for pilots, i.e. big prize money events that attract top competitors, moderate prize money events where competition is desired but not necessarily imperative, and little or no prize money events where fun flying is the top requirement.

While some pilots might disagree, most organizers say that they want, in fact need input from the pilots with suggestions on how the events can improve. Most major events today include a critique sheet of some type for pilots to complete and return at the conclusion of an event. This is a far cry from the early days when an organizer's attitude might have been "if you don't like it, don't come back." Walla Walla's Perkins-Hewitt says it is critical to an event's success to get the critique and use it.

"Sometimes you can get too close to the event and maybe you're not seeing it in their (the pilots') eyes. For me, I've been able to sometimes call a pilot back and maybe give them a better perspective of some of the financial questions we have to address... that a balloon rally is not just the balloons."

One reason this can be important Perkins-Hewitt told Balloon Life is that success often breeds misunderstanding. "People look at an event and think, boy, somebody must be making a lot of money. But they don't see all of the bills. And, another thing that changes; as you become more successful, people want to charge you for items or services they previously donated or volunteered," she said.

Freedom Weekend's Hall agrees that critiques are important and notes how they have helped shape the Freedom Weekend festival. "We absolutely try to solicit the input of pilots. In fact, one thing we've learned through experience from listening to pilot comments is that there needs to be enough prize money and competition to make the event attractive, but let's keep it as a festival and fun."

Just what changes will the future hold? Each of the organizers we spoke with agreed that the pressure is on them to work toward a new level of professionalism. And what are the signs of professionalism? "Convenience," says Preakness organizer Sherrill. "I understand that pilots don't want to have to run all over town for propane, parties, and their hotel. I try at each event to set things up so they are as convenient as possible for the pilot."

"Value," says Albuquerque's Baugh. "It's no longer enough just to show a sponsor a good time. Few people come to Albuquerque for nine days and don't have a good time, but when they return to the corporate world they have to justify all that money they spent. We have to be able to provide them with the name exposure, product sampling and demographics they expect."

"Safety," says Walla Walla's Perkins-Hewitt. "We have to try and have everything just perfect because any time you have an accident or incident it mars not just your event, but every other event in the country. What happens in Albuquerque will be reported in your hometown where there is a balloon event. An incident back East will be reported in every town that has a balloon rally.

"It may only be a few paragraphs in the newspaper but those incidents get sponsors wondering just how safe are these events. No sponsor wants that kind of publicity. That's why I work very hard with other events and we get together to go over safety concerns," says Perkins-Hewitt. The fact that organizers are concerned about their professionalism is unquestionably an endorsement of the initial premise upon which we based this report, that balloon festivals have changed significantly over the past ten or fifteen years from a few locals getting together for a good time to a true spectator sport.

What will the next decade bring? More prize money? Television coverage? Time will tell. But if recent events are any indication we could not conclude this report without noting that in late May, the Kodak Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta became the first balloon event with a home page location on the Internet's World Wide Web. Now if you can't travel to Fiesta, you can access it on the information superhighway!