Arizona's Premier Hot Air Balloon Festival! The LUCKY 13th Annual Arizona Balloon Classic will be held January 26-28, 2024. The skies will be filled with colorful hot-air balloons participating in ascensions from the fields of the Goodyear Ballpark for a spectacular sight of mass and color. Spectators can walk on the field and experience the balloon's inflation and lift-off. Photo taking is invited. DESERT GLOWS on Friday and Saturday evenings, January 26th & 27th are the most attended events. A field full of illuminated, tethered, hot air balloons will GLOW.
Other Events: Family Fun Zone - inflatables for kids, Hot Air Balloon Tether rides, BMX Stunt Shows, Live Entertainment, Retail shopping & sampling, Commercial exhibits for purchases or browsing. Featuring, the 7th Annual StreetFoodFest - Bring your appetite, as there will be an amazing variety of festival foods favorites available to purchase & Beer Tents!!!
Additional event info at: www.abcfest.com
Other Events: Family Fun Zone - inflatables for kids, Hot Air Balloon Tether rides, BMX Stunt Shows, Live Entertainment, Retail shopping & sampling, Commercial exhibits for purchases or browsing. Featuring, the 7th Annual StreetFoodFest - Bring your appetite, as there will be an amazing variety of festival foods favorites available to purchase & Beer Tents!!!
Additional event info at: www.abcfest.com
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00 All good 'cause the 13th annual Arizona Balloon Classic kicks off today in Goodyear.
00:05 So let's head out live to the Goodyear ballpark to see what we're gonna be checking out and doing.
00:10 And Dave, how are you this morning?
00:13 Man, I am fantastic. I'm living my best life flying these balloons out here.
00:19 Yeah, this is awesome. Actually, we're supposed to have some good weather this weekend too to enjoy some balloon either there at the Classic.
00:25 But this is opportunity for people to get up close and see what it's like to actually be in a balloon.
00:32 Yeah, this is the place. This is the hub for the weekend for hotter balloons.
00:40 This is the Goodyear park. And if you miss this, you won't see this many balloons here in Phoenix for a while.
00:47 Hey, let's talk about the balloon you're in, 'cause this is kind of interesting that I'm seeing this.
00:51 Is this a passenger one or is this one of the competition ones?
00:55 This is a 16-passenger balloon. This is one of the largest ride balloons that you'll see flying in the skies.
01:04 Yeah, because usually the baskets for the competition are a little bit smaller because you guys are like in a race, aren't you?
01:10 Yeah, yeah. Normally, a regular-sized balloon that you would see would have two fuel tanks
01:18 and a small basket that would only hold myself and two other passengers.
01:24 When you go into a ride balloon, you have a whole other section just for passengers to move about the compartments.
01:31 Yeah. Okay, let's talk about your balloon. How big is your balloon that you actually use for competition?
01:41 For a competition balloon, you're going to look at a 77,000-90,000-cubic-foot balloon for competitions.
01:48 That's going to be a one- or two-passenger balloon.
01:51 When you go into this size balloon, we're talking 330,000 cubic feet,
01:57 meaning you can put 330,000 basketballs inside the volume of that balloon.
02:03 That is so cool. This is what you get to learn when you come out there, all the different things.
02:07 I learned, every time I go out there, I learn something new about ballooning, which is kind of neat.
02:11 Okay, the speed. This is very interesting. The speed of a balloon is faster than what?
02:18 Well, faster than the speed of smell. Balloons travel with the wind, so we are depending on wind speed and direction.
02:29 Different altitudes have different directions. Different altitudes have different speeds.
02:34 There's places where we could hover out in a calm layer, and there's places where you could go south really quick.
02:40 I'll tell you, that's pretty cool. But the great part about it, and we're looking at a little bit of video right now,
02:44 and that is, of course, the big glow. You come out and you see these beautiful balloons at night, which is amazing.
02:51 You guys are excited about that, aren't you?
02:54 Yeah, that's my biggest recommendation. The best thing to do is ride in a balloon, come out for our morning launches.
03:00 The glow is my favorite. That's the magic that happens at night.
03:05 Yeah, which is pretty cool. And then there's great things for the whole family to do out there.
03:08 There's food. There's, of course, vendors. Also kite flying again this year, I think is going to be happening, right?
03:15 Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They have some huge kites that come out each year.
03:21 That's something to see during the day. So there's events all throughout the day, all the way into sunset and after sunset.
03:29 You want to come out and hang out for a while. There's so much to do here.
03:32 Yeah. Hey, Dave, very quickly, are you from here or have you traveled in?
03:39 I traveled in from Albuquerque, New Mexico, the capital of hot air ballooning.
03:45 Yeah, and I'll tell you, it's fun to go over there and see it, but it's great to see them out there.
03:48 So we love it. What's the name of the company that you're that you fly with?
03:54 Fly Albuquerque. Fly Albuquerque. I love it.
03:57 Dave, thank you very much. We're looking forward to this weekend of a great event out there.
04:01 Channel 7 will be out there at their booth. Something new at the booth.
04:04 You're going to come by. We have a surprise for you when you go out there.
04:07 But it is the 13th annual Arizona Balloon Classic at the Goodyear Ballpark.
04:12 Head out there this weekend, everybody, and enjoy, of course, Up, Up in a Balloon.
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