During the late autumn days of November 18-25, Saga City, Japan hosted the 1996 International Balloon Fiesta. The spacious banks of the Kase River, which runs through the Saga plains, offered ample room for the 118 multi-colored balloons to land and take-off, with thousands of enthralled onlookers lining its banks.

The city of Saga is located on the northwest corner of Kyushu Island, the southernmost of the four islands of Japan. Its northwest border is the Genkai Sea and to the Southeast is the Ariake Sea. Blessed with a mild climate and fertile plains, it has served as a gateway to the Asian continent, introducing culture from China and Korea into Japan since ancient times.

The Saga Balloon Fiesta originated in 1978 under the name of "Balloon Fiesta in Kyushu," which was held in Amagi City, Fukuoka Prefecture. Since 1980, this Fiesta has been held in Saga.

In the past 16 years, the event has grown in size and has become an essential part of Saga City. The city merchants and businesses are very supportive of the Balloon Fiesta, displaying balloon posters in their windows and hosting a Welcome Party for the participants at the Matsugoro Shopping Square downtown, giving away fantastic door and game prizes from their shops.

Since 1984 the Fiesta began inviting pilots from around the world to participate and was also renamed the "Saga International Balloon Fiesta." Today, it is a full-scale international sporting event, this year hosting the 4th Pacific Championship, 13th Japanese National Championship, 13th Pacific Cup, 7th Ladies World Cup and the 1996 HONDA Grand Prix-Final.

Since 1984 when the first international competition was held, many top ranking world pilots have participated in the Fiesta. There have been over 400 foreign balloons which have participated attracting more than 3,500 foreigners to Saga City.

In 1989, for the first time in Asia, Saga hosted the 9th Hot Air Balloon World Championship with participants coming from 25 countries around the world, bringing a total of 132 balloons. The event was a great success and as a result, Saga gained international recognition for ballooning. In November 1997, Saga will proudly host its second Hot Air Balloon World Championship.

This year's schedule started with the usual check-ins for Pilots, Crew, Observers and Officials at Mate Plaza on Tuesday, November 19th. That evening HONDA Motor Co. hosted the Flight Eve Party, followed by the annual Light Fantasia and parade down the main street of Saga. Wearing festive HAPPI coats (a colorful lightweight cotton jacket which Japanese people traditionally wear at festivals), presented to us by the Mayor, we paraded down the tree-light streets of Saga. Many of us proudly waived our respective country's flag and passed out little favors to the children that lined both sides of the streets. This was my second trip to Saga and it seemed like the streets were twice as crowded this year than last. The whole town must have poured out to watch the parade and join in the festivities! At the conclusion of the parade, a small official party was held with native Japanese music, dancing, food and fun.

A variety of social events were held during the week in conjunction with the Balloon Fiesta, contributing to the festival atmosphere, receptions were held by city government officials, sponsors and citizens of Saga. At the Mayor's Reception November 20th, the Mayor of Saga City, Nishimura Masatoshi, greeted his guests and wished them good weather so that the world's top pilots would be able to demonstrate their ability to the fullest. He also hoped that they would make this a memorable occasion that would stay in their hearts forever. With open-arms, he added, no matter what nationality they were, that Saga's circle of friendship and exchange was always growing.

A definite highlight of the week was the "Sanyua-machi Night" party held in a field behind Mate Plaza (our debriefing center) on Saturday. This was a time when balloon participants, townsfolk and volunteer workers met and got to know each other. There was plenty of fun and entertainment with a live band, a stage for dancing and lots of food and drink for everyone. Linda Gavigan, an Observer from Wisconsin, brought her CD of Los del Mar singing "The Macarena" and a crowd of international party goers showed off their dancing skills by doing the hand motions and body movements to the beat of the music.

Although the social events were loads of fun, it was usually early to bed every night to get a few hours of shut-eye before the Observer bus picked us up each morning to transport us to the Launch Field for our 6:30 am Task Briefings. Morning flights usually consisted of three tasks that combined either a Hesitation Waltz with a Fly-On, a Pilot or Judge Declared Goal with a Fly-In and Fly-On, or a Minimum Distance with a Pilot Declared Goal and a Fly-On. Leaving the Launch Field and flying in either direction, the balloons often landed in newly harvested rice fields where children would run to greet the pilot and surround the balloon. Landowners and surrounding neighbors often put aside their labors of the farm to offer a word of congratulations. Even though few words were spoken, a friendly handshake, nod of the head and smile are universal in any language.

Following the morning tasks, Observers were driven to Mate Plaza by their respective Pilot for a debriefing and reviewing of their report sheets. There wasn't much time to relax or recharge though, because it was back out to the Launch Field at 2:30 p.m. for the afternoon Task Briefing. The afternoon flights were kept to just one task, usually consisting of a Pilot Declared Goal, Fly-In or Minimum Distance.

Blessed with unusually warm weather the entire week, only two afternoon flights had to be canceled due to high winds. During the five days of competition, pilots had a chance to demonstrate their skills and completed a total of 15 tasks. The Balloon Fiesta went smoothly and safely all the way to the end, including Saturday and Sunday evening's La Montgolfiere Nocturne and Sunday afternoon's Key Grab. Over 80,000 spectators lined the banks of the Kase River to view the special shape balloons, daily competitions, and La Montgolfiere Nocturnes which delighted all of its viewers.

The Key Grab Race on Sunday, November 24 was very profitable for the competing pilots with all five keys captured. Grabbing the white key and winning the top prize of $7,000 was Rubens Rosdon Kalousdian in his Bis/Lacta balloon from Brazil. Rubens has been a pilot for 13 years and was the Brazilian Champion in 88, 90 and 95. He and his brother, Rui, are owners of the biggest hot air balloon company in South America.

Bring the week to a close was The Awards Banquet held at noon on Monday, November 25 at the beautiful Maritopia Hall. Many speeches were given by city officials, sponsors and the Japan Balloon Federation, congratulating the pilots for a job well down and inviting them back to compete in the World Championship that will be held in Saga next November.

Thanks to the hard work of people like Event Director, Masashi Kakuda, Assistant Event Director, Debbie Spaeth from the U.S.A. and Chief Observer, Dr. Brita Petersen from Germany, and their entire staff, this year's event was a tremendous success, not only for ballooning, but for fostering international friendship with the citizens of Saga Prefecture.

Here are the top five standings of each competition that took place during the 1996 Saga International Balloon Fiesta :

13th Pacific Cup
1st: Uwe Schneider from Germany - 12919 Task Points
2nd: Csaba Molnar from Hungary - 12105 Task Points
3rd: Yasuhiko Asaoka from Japan - 11955 Task Points
4th: Patrick Cannon from U.S.A. - 11527 Task Points
5th: David Levin from U.S.A. - 11356 Task Points

4th Pacific Championship
1st: Yasuhiko Asaoka from Japan - 11303 Task Points
2nd: David Levin from U.S.A. - 10863 Task Points
3rd: Owen Keown from U.S.A. - 10832 Task Points
4th: Patrick Cannon from U.S.A. - 10806 Task Points
5th: Shigefumi Iwai from Japan - 10687 Task Points

13th Japanese National Championship:
1st: Yasuhiko Asaoka - 12317 Task Points
2nd: Shigefumi Iwai - 11358 Task Points
3rd: Tetsuya Mizoguchi - 10918 Task Points
4th: Sohki Nakaguchi - 10887 Task Points
5th: Hikaru Otagiri - 10852 Task Points

7th Ladies World Cup
1st: Lindsay Muir from United Kingdom - 11610 Task Points
2nd: Matsuko Seo from Japan - 9451 Task Points
3rd: Nagy Katalin Bognarne from Hungary - 9383 Task Points
4th: Akiko Haraguchi from Japan - 9245 Task Points
5th: Akemi Takamoto from Japan - 8516 Task Points

1996 Honda Grand Prix
1st: Team Fire Fly with 174 points
2nd: Kumonoko Balloon Club with 170 points
3rd: Ibaragi Univ. Hot Air Balloon Club with 165 points

1996-97 Australia-Japan Challenge Cup.
The purpose of this Challenge Cup is to develop competition performance for balloonists in both countries and reinforce friendship between the two countries. The Cup will be decided based on results from team competition in two events; 3 tasks in 1996 Saga International Balloon Fiesta and 3 tasks in World Flying Match Cup Race in Mildura, Australia in 1997. The results of stage 1 of the Challenge Cup showed Australia with 16 points and Japan with 14 points. The results were very close with no team achieving a clean sweep or 3-0 result. Event 2 will be in Mildura, Australia in July 1997. To remember this event, a special plaque was awarded to all participants by the Saga International Balloon Fiesta.

Japanese rice patties being cooked on festival grounds