I attended the Great Texas Balloon Race in Longview last weekend – or, more specifically, saw the “balloon glow” put on for the public. It’s a light show consisting of balloonists firing up their balloons together so the beauty of their balloons can be appreciated as art. It is a show of beauty and fun, as each balloon has character and personality. The character balloons like Yoda, Darth Vader, the crab, and the seahorse you’ll see below, can cost many tens of thousands of dollars. There were “glows” where all the balloonists lit up at the same time, special glows such as the “all balloonists from Texas,” and then there were “twinkle glows,” where the jets were turned off and on quickly.
The evening started with a growing crowd that eventually filled the airport grounds, and the balloons laying flat on the ground, looking like colorful roadkill. The basket containing the gas tanks and two burners at the top of the frame would be positioned laying down with the burners pointed towards the balloon opening. The inflation process started with big fans blowing air into the balloon as it was held open by a crew that would later struggle to keep the basket both down on the ground and the balloon vertical. When enough air was blown in, tank valves would be opened and the balloonist and his crew had the challenge of both heating the air inside the balloon, while managing to keep the burners in perfect alignment by rotating the basket upward as the balloon rose to its upright position. Quite a challenge.
I was near the seahorse and was able to video the entire inflation procedure, which took about ten minutes in total. Then there was a moment where attention lapsed and some of us in the crowd wondered if we’d find ourselves to be seahorse food as it seemed to be looming and falling downward. A few pulls on the burner jets brought it back to full glory.
I wish the pictures did it justice, but I feel they fail miserably in demonstrating just how pretty it all was.
Notes: We saw four or five balloons taking off as we arrived, and I remember exclaiming about how quickly they were moving. They were actually engaging in a race, dropping markers at specified points about town. FYI- THOSE THINGS CAN *MOVE*!!
Everyone in the crowd stood for the national anthem. No NFL copycats in the crowd that I could see.
There were international balloonists in the race. I heard of Belgium and Lithuania. There may have been another.
Nine of the top 100 balloonists worldwide participated in the GTBR of 2018.
Here is the inflation video:
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