Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta - Evening Activities

After the exhilaration of that early morning launch of hot air balloons, the activities are over until the evening session.  There were some chainsaw carving contests going on at the far north end of the launch field, a band was playing on the stage in the center of the vendor area, and some sky racers were scheduled to entertain.  But most of the crowd leaves after the balloons all launch.  So our group left in their car, and got to experience the traffic congestion that comes from 100,000 people leaving the same place.

We had a nice brunch, and explored a little of Albuquerque.  We tried to go for a hike, but an afternoon lightning storm sent us scurrying back to the car.  Then all six of us managed to get a nap back at our motor home, because we were tired from that early morning wake-up call.  We watched some college football, had some cookies and fruit, and then headed back to the fiesta for the evening activities.  

We had to check out the chainsaw artists' work, and were very impressed with their projects.  They had a competition this afternoon where they had 90 minutes to transform a log into a piece of art, and we were amazed at their finished products.

Just as we were waiting for it to get light this morning for activities to begin in the a.m., we were waiting for it to get dark for the evening events to start in the p.m.  There was a beautiful desert sunset over the launch field to entertain us until it got dark.

The afternoon storms had brought in the wind, and again it was questionable whether they could inflate the balloons for the scheduled "Twilight Twinkle Glow."  The organizers have a flag system that indicates if the scheduled activities will happen, and they had been flying the yellow flag all evening.  The crowd cheered when the flag was changed to green, and they started inflating balloons as the sun went down.

Because it was getting so late when the green flag came out, many of the balloonist decided not to participate in the glow.  But a few brave souls did inflate, even though the wind kept pushing their balloons to the side.

This picture shows that it is darker now, and the balloons are struggling to stay upright in the breeze.  That also makes it tough to fire the propane burners that make the glowing effect.

The crowd did count downs for all the balloons to light up at the same time, and we're guessing this would have been spectacular on a calm night.  We couldn't help but notice that the majority of the balloons that chose to participate tonight had a corporate sponsor.  They liked having the opportunity to illuminate their company billboard balloons.

After the Twilight Twinkle, the balloons were deflated and the laser light show began.  Choreographed to music, it was quite impressive.  But it should have been a little darker outside so we could see the lasers better.  The next item on the agenda was the evening fireworks.  The rest of our group decided to try to beat the traffic jam out of the parking lot, so they headed back to Santa Fe.  But Mark and Denisa stayed, and really enjoyed the fireworks.  It was nice to know that our bed was only a mile walk or a short shuttle bus ride away.  We enjoyed the evening session and were glad we got to experience it.  But it can't compare with the wow factor that the morning launch had for us.