Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta Next Year October 2015 - Save the Date

[TucsonJim]

If we want to have a rally on the Western side of the US, this would be a lot of fun, but probably impractical. If you were to plan on going, you'd need to make your reservations in the next 60 days or so. When they had the rally a few weeks ago in Elkhart, lots of folks made last minute plans to attend. If folks didn't have reservations for the Balloon Fest, it's unlikely that they could effectively make a reservation a few weeks to a few months ahead of time.

I'd suggest that we try and set up a group of folks to attend the Balloon fest, but not make it an official GD rally with factory representatives, etc. Most folks would be too focused on the festivities, and not specifically on GD products, suppliers, maintenance, etc.

[Lingerlonger]

Passing along this info from a friend in ABQ:

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, you can watch events streamed live on our local NBC station: www.kob.com. Morning ascensions start at 7 AM MST, and KOB's coverage begins at about 5:30 AM MST. Fiesta begins on Saturday, 4 October. Complete events schedule can be viewed at http://www.balloonfiesta.com/event-info/event-schedule.

[chris]

If anyone is in town for this, please let me know. I'm just down the street at work, and would love to meet you.
Ct..

[WhyPaulo]

Kristy and I are still planning to book into the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta for next October. Like Jim mentioned earlier, you will want to make your reservation soon, as RV sites will sell out faster than you would expect. We looked at it in late spring of this year and all RV sites were already sold out. We are looking forward to scratching this one off of our bucket list. Let us know if you're going and we can meet up with you in October.....P&K

[robertson2015]

October in Albuquerque can be fickle. Usually is is light sweater weather (60 to 70s) in the day. For the fiesta, plan on being out in dark and cold...bring a winter coat and gloves. Some years it rains a lot, some it snows. 2014 was a very nice weather year with only a few events cancelled due to rain or wind.

If you have a bad weather day...visit the tram or old town or a good restaurant ..there are plenty of things to see.

Lived her 30+years..and I still love seeing the balloons.

[WhyPaulo]

FYI

Booking RV sites for the 2015 Balloon Fiesta opens for reservations tomorrow Tuesday October 21st. We're leaning towards the premium site for $65/night which includes 30amp and water. From what we've read, the RV sites will sell out long before the event gets close, so you'll want to reserve a site fairly soon. Sounds like you might want to get there a few days prior to the event to avoid the congestion of checking in, but we have no idea what it's like. Please let us know if you have any tips or previous experience with the event. Here's more detail at their site:

http://www.balloonfiesta.com/guest-guide/rv-information

Thanks,

Paul & Kris

[funinthesnow]

We would love to see a GD rally on the west coast. We live in Colorado and could help pick a spot. In fact Colorado has many many beautiful places to have one. :-) The balloon fest in NM would be great as well. Just putting my two cents in.

[WhyPaulo]

So for anyone who has been to the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, could you give us any recommendations for how early to show up and how long to stay? Kristy & I want to book soon, but we'd like to know what others who have been there would recommend. Your experience would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks all,

Paul

[robertson2015]

Living here in Albuquerque, I can say many rv folks arrive several days early to get settled before the last minute crunch of arrivals on the Friday before the events start. The exodus on the last day is crazy.. Lines of RVs leaving by midafternoon the last Sunday.

If you want to collect pins or souvenirs, you need to go on the first couple of days as things sell out quickly. All the best stuff sells on the first morning.

Each day of the event is different. There can be 700 balloons in the sky.. Or none. The weather can cause cancelations, so you never know which days will be full of activity and which will not.

Many nights there are glows and fireworks. If you are doing the morning takeoffs, plan to head over to the field before the sun begins to light the sky. Enjoy a burrito and coffee and cinnamon rolls. Wear gloves.. It is cold.

It's really amazing how nice the pilots are. Stand by and watch them set up a balloon from start to finish.. It takes teamwork. Some of them have cards to hand out. Some of the come from other countries.

For the night glows, the gates open about four and are crowded before the sun goes down. The balloons are spectacularly loud and warm and beautiful. Fireworks go until almost ten pm. The days are long.. And so much fun.

If I were traveling here I'd plan a few days on either side of the event just so I could enjoy it all.

Thankfully, I live where I can see the balloons each day and watch the fireworks on the grass in front of my neighborhood. Spoiled, I am.

[Lingerlonger]

We went a couple of years ago.
The Fiesta usually runs over 2 weekends I think. You will want to plan to be there for 3-5 days, because of the uncertainty of the weather. They don't fly or do the night glows if the winds are too high. We got one good day out of 3 for flying. It was cold in the mornings and evenings.
Lots to do and see in New Mexico, outside of Albuquerque also. We did a 7 day road trip down south and then back up to the city.