A few years ago we heard about the Chagrin Falls Balloon Glow. It’s part of their Memorial Day weekend Blossom Time Festival and it sounded like a wonderful opportunity to see some hot air balloons up close. The day we went it was cloudy and windy so it was cut a bit short but we loved it anyway and always wanted to go back. We were excited to finally make it back this year and we couldn’t have asked for better weather, blue skies and 70 degrees.
The Chagrin Falls Balloon Glow takes place behind the Chagrin Falls High School on the baseball field. Spectators line the field from behind home plate all the way out into the outfield. This year it was set to start at 8:30 pm. We arrived about 8:00 and the crowd was already huge. We had to park pretty far away but at the end of the night we all agreed the walk was worth it. We set up our camping chairs out in left field and when we arrived the ReMax hot air balloon was already up and in place.
It looked really neat against the beautiful sunset and I was excited capture a few colorful pictures before the sun went down.
Pretty soon trucks pulled onto the baseball field to unload the hot air balloon baskets.
Next they placed the bag holding their hot air balloon on the field (can you believe a hot air balloon fits in that bag!).
Then one by one they unrolled the balloons laying them out on the field.
It wasn’t long before they had them hooked up to the baskets and were turning on the gas, lighting the balloons so they would fill with air above and around us.
Once all of the balloons were inflated it was getting pretty dark. This is where the “Glow” part of Balloon Glow comes in. There was a lady using a microphone that got the crowd to countdown from 10 and when we reached 1 all of the balloonists turned on their gas, lighting the balloons up against the dark night sky. Here’s a video:
Next time I’ll be sure to turn my phone horizontally.
It was an incredible and colorful site!
The balloonists would turn off their flames for a minute or so and then the lady with the microphone would shout, “Light your balloon if it has red in it!” And all the balloons with red would light up. She yelled out a number of different things to get a variety of the balloons to light up at different times.
It was all a lot of fun and I was excited to snap so many incredible photos. I captured all of these from my seat in left field where I sat with my mom and the kids.
Dave and my dad were more adventurous and actually went out on the field and got some amazing shots. I’m hoping Dave will have a little time in the next few days to put together a post full of his photos too.
As you can see we loved the Chagrin Falls Balloon Glow and had a wonderful and memorable time. We recommend it to anyone with an interest in hot air balloons. It’s a great family event and they had a few stands available with carnival food and drinks and there was enough space on the field before the balloons started for the kids to play catch, tag, and other outdoor summer games.
The link with a bit of info for this year’s Balloon Glow is here, if you are reading this another year and the link isn’t working try this one from the Chagrin Valley Jaycee’s, it should have some info for you. If you’re in the area we hope you can make it and that you have as much fun as we did.
