Northampton Balloon Festival to make annual return this weekend

The first hot air balloons will take to the skies at 6am on Friday to kick-off the three-day festival at Billing Aquadrome.

In the afternoon will follow a tethering, a Q&A with pilots and crew members, an evening flight at 6pm and a Tallawah concert in the marquee at 8pm. The stalls and fairground will be open from 3pm.

The programme of events for Saturday and Sunday are more or less the same, though the former’s runs later into the night.

A 6am morning flight will precede a packed schedule of sports kite demonstrations, falconry, extreme mountain bike shows, and big bubble shows.

There will be live music at 3pm and 5.15pm on both Saturday and Sunday as well as later in the evening.

One of the festival highlights, at 9pm on Saturday evening, will be the “Balloon Glow,” where the balloons will turn into giant lanterns tethered to the ground set to music.

For a full programme of events visit the festival’s website at www.thenorthamptonballoonfestival.co.uk.

Organisers and anybody wishing to attend this weekend’s festival will hope it is not a repeat of last year’s when wet and windy weather, unfortunately, grounded the balloons for the first time in the festival’s 27 year history.

As last year’s get-together showed, the Northampton Balloon Festival is very much weather dependent.

The Met Office website has indicated a chance of rain on Friday afternoon and on Sunday teatime, but overall it seems as if the weather will hold out.

Wind speeds could reach as high as 20mph on Friday afternoon but look set to lower over the course of the weekend.

Car parking is £5, adult tickets are £5, and u16s go free.