Bristol Balloon Festival August

On Saturday 8th August we decided to go to the Bristol Balloon Festival. We arrived just after midday and managed to park quite easily, a 15 minute walk took us to the arena. There had been a mass launch at 6am but that was a bit too early for us, so we planned to see the evening launch, which was scheduled for 6.30pm with various arena events until then.

It was a hot day and gradually the park filled up, we visited the trade stalls but there weren't that many (a lot of military displays) and by 3pm we had seen most of them. With over 3 hrs to go we decided to walk out of the park to the Clifton Suspension bridge which was a mile or so away. As we returned at 5pm the Red Arrows roared overhead with their usual impressive display. By now there were 10s of thousands of people arriving so we made our way back down the slope towards the arena to watch the balloons set up.

After a comfort stop (100 people and about a 30 minute wait for the toilets!) we found a small space to sit, and from about 7pm the balloons were launched, in all about 100. Our view of the initial launch was partially obscured by 'Churchill the Insurance dog' but soon we could see the balloons rising above the arena, a fabulous sight.


A night burn was planned at 9.30 pm so we had to kill time until then, queues were now long for everything (later it was reported some 150,000 people were there) 18 balloons returned for the night glow, and were tethered in the arena and their burners were lit in time to music. This lasted for about 40 mins and was equally impressive.


The finale was a firework display which we decided to miss so as to try and get ahead of the crowds. If you have ever wondered what happens to the fireworks after they explode we can now tell you as we were in the fall out zone and ash was falling on us as we walked out.

Despite our quick exit it still took 45 minutes to clear the area and we finally got home around 1.30 exhausted but after a very enjoyable day. The plan to visit the chilli festival on Sunday put off to another year as we were both far to tired.