by Glen Moyer
And with good reason! 1996 is
truly the year when Fiesta is "Where the World Celebrates Ballooning."
Staged on an all new launch field with the largest contingent of balloons
ever, the 25th Anniversary Kodak Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
is an event of truly global proportions. But it hasn't always been that
way...
Fiesta's storied beginning, a quarter century ago, has become legend. It was 1971 and Sid Cutter was throwing a W.W.I-themed birthday party for his mother with Albuquerque's first hot air balloon serving as the buffet centerpiece. Sid and brother Bill would free fly the balloon the next day and ballooning had officially arrived in Albuquerque. This was followed by a second birthday party, radio station KOB's 50th birthday bash and a wild plan to bring together an amazing twenty-one balloons. If successful the Albuquerque party would be the largest gathering of balloons ever (at least up until that date of April 8, 1972). Unfortunately only thirteen pilots and balloons arrived but the launch from Coronado Center, arguably Albuquerque's first Fiesta, was wildly successful.
Indeed it was the success of this then off-beat
birthday bash that led directly to the selection of Albuquerque as host
site for the first World Hot Air Balloon Championships just one year later
in February, 1973. 138 balloons from 15 countries descended on Albuquerque
and the New Mexico State Fairgrounds for a week of competition and camaraderie.
This was truly the largest gathering of balloons held anywhere in the world
establishing Albuquerque forever as the unquestionable Balloon Capital of
the World and the legend was born!
In the years that followed the City of Albuquerque and its citizens would forever be changed by the burgeoning Fiesta. The number of participating balloons and pilots would double, then double again. Fiesta would move from the fairgrounds to an alfalfa field to Fiesta Park until a land deal announced in 1995 established a new and permanent home site, while the dates for the event moved from February to October. Even the very nature of Fiesta, originally a world class hot air balloon competition, would see change.
Fiesta first began to establish its carnival atmosphere in 1975 when, having moved to Simms Field, spectators were allowed to mix and mingle with the balloons and balloonists. It was also the move to Simms field that allowed the balloonists to discover the renowned Albuquerque Box-winds flowing in opposite directions at differing altitudes thus allowing balloons to make several passes over the field, often landing near where they launched. The fiesta atmosphere was beginning to take shape. One final step was needed.
"We decided we were better
at hospitality than we were at hosting competitions," recalls organizer
Senator Tom Rutherford. "The decision was made not to bid on the World
Championships again. Albuquerque likes its ballooning much more frivolous."
Bob Ruppenthal was named Balloonmeister of the 1976 Fiesta and it fell to him to institute the necessary frivolity. Fiesta pilots would still compete, but the earlier competition landings and barograph races featured in the world championships, were replaced by the Coyote and Roadrunners chase, by the Tumbleweed Drop and other ingenious tasks. Over the next decade balloonists at Fiesta would spend their mornings flying their balloons while trying to ring an inflatable bottle with a hula-hoop, or by hitting a target with a beach ball, a film box or even a miniature inflatable blimp! In recent years there has been a return to more standard competition, pilots now drop bird seed filled baggies at various targets. While substantial prizes are awarded the winners, serious world class competition has never again been a focus at Fiesta.
By virtue of its being the largest and one of the oldest ballooning events in the world, Fiesta has enjoyed a reputation as the harbinger of things to come in the world of balloon festivals. You can be sure that if it has been tried and tested and found to work at Fiesta, it will soon be copied by most every other fiesta, festival or rally. Two examples stand out.
In 1987 Fiesta added its first
night time balloon attraction, the Balloon Glow. Fiesta was not the first
to glow balloons, but it was the first to do so on such a majestic scale
with more than 300 participating balloons. No one was prepared for the effect
of the first all burn. "It was phenomenal," recalls organizer
Scott Appleman. "
Likewise, Special Shaped balloons had been seen before at Fiesta, but they were never showcased in their own event, that is not until 1989 and the first Special Shapes Rodeo, a Fiesta original. Fewer than two dozen shapes registered for the 1989 rodeo; more than 100 will participate in 1996.
In its earliest years, Fiesta was nine mornings of flying and eight nights of partying. The balloon field was virtually a ghost town by noon. Worse, the crowd pleasing mass ascensions were over after the opening weekend and by Monday morning as competition flights began, the crowd of spectators noticeably dwindled and by week's end even the number of balloonists and crew was shrinking.
Fiesta officials tried a variety
of attractions, skydivers, gliders, music concerts, and more, but nothing
drew spectators like balloons. The city's hotel and motel association also
began to realize that while they were booked to overflowing for Fiesta's
opening weekend, there were a host of vacant rooms by week's end. With the
introduction of the Balloon Glow in 1987, Fiesta began a trend that continues
today-that of adding more and more ballooning activities meant to bring
the crowds back in the afternoon/evening hours and keeping the crowds in
town throughout Fiesta's week long run. It was not by accident that the
Special Shapes Rodeo debuted in the afternoon hours of Thursday and Friday.
Indeed with some refinements in scheduling, such as adding a mini-glow to
the closing weekend schedule, a mid-week mass ascension of the special shapes,
and moving the key grab to Friday, Fiesta today offers tourists and those
who serve that industry three distinct Fiesta packages with options to arrive
in Albuquerque for opening weekend attractions, mid-week attractions, and/or
closing weekend attractions. Hotel and motel rooms that once stood empty
as Fiesta week waned, are now full. Still, the evolution continues...
World attention was again focused on Albuquerque's
Fiesta in 1993 when it hosted the 37th Coupe de Gordon Bennett International
Gas Balloon Race. This success, like that of the first Fiesta, landed Albuquerque
the host role for 1994's World Gas Balloon Championship, both of which were
capped by Fiesta's own creation, The America's Challenge for Gas Balloons
which debuted in 1995.
Fiesta was the first ballooning event to experiment with live closed circuit television. The "Cube" a 14-foot tall video wall allowed on-site spectators to see and hear the excitement of Fiesta "live" from venues throughout the park. 1995 saw Fiesta featured in a highly successful ESPN television special even as the event was launched into cyberspace with its own homepage on the Internet.
Fiesta is literally a story without end, each year's event adding a new chapter to its storied past. What began as a birthday party for a few friends of the Cutter family has grown into a celebration of global proportions, or as Dick McKee remarked about that first Fiesta in 1973, "a festival to end all festivals!"
