My college friends asked me last year to come with them to the see the Hot Air Balloon Festival. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to come with them due to the loads of work I had to finish. Since then, it has never left my mind that I will come and see this Festival once my schedule permits.
This Fiesta started here in the country in 1994 to help the economy after the Mount Pinatubo eruption. Year after year, there is an increase in visitors and participants. This means that there are more colorful things to view which would make me more relaxed, the reason why I need to watch this event.
A week prior to the 17th Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, I heard one of our officemate, Mommy Cherry as we call her, asking us who would want to buy tickets for this event. In an instant, I advised her that I would want to and have asked my team if they want to come with me.
To cut the long story short, I grabbed some tickets for this event and there! I am already excited to come to the event.
My office friends and I have set to watch the fourth day of the event since it falls on a Sunday. Since the show is scheduled to start at 5:30 in the morning, we agreed that Liezel and Butch will fetch Mel before 3am. Butch left his car at our house and we were supposed to meet Olive and her boyfriend. Sadly, they had an emergency so we left Manila without them.
Isko drove us to the site - Airforce City, Clark Freeport, Angeles City, Pampanga and it took us less than 2 hours to reach the destination but it took us quite awhile to find a parking space.
So I suggest that for those interested in coming over to watch this exciting event, that it is either you find a room in the nearest hotel to have an overnight stay and just wake up early in time for the first take-off of the balloons or wake up earlier and drive/commute to Clark.
Though we already had a few bites before we drove to the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, we were already hungry by the time we got there. But that wasn’t quite a probably since there are about 50 concessionaires in site.
The entrance fee was 200 Pesos and you would need to fall in a long line if you have not bought your tickets in advance. However, a fee of about $150 - $200 dollar is needed if you want to take a balloon ride which is a first come first serve basis. Viewing the balloons nearer would also mean a different fee, If I remember it right it is about a hundred pesos.
The event took place on February 9 – 12 this year, in the Philippines but is also an annual event in the rest of the word.
Activities you can watch/do while you are in the event
As one of the biggest aviation sports events in the Philippines, there are so many things to watch if you are staying there for the day:
Aerobatic Exhibition
|
AOPA Light Airplane Ballon Bursting Finals
|
AOPA Light Airplane Balloon Bursting Competition
|
Choreographed Kite Flying Exhibition
|
Helicopter Flying Exhibition
|
Hot Air Balloon Flights
|
Paragliding Exhibition
|
R/C Helicopter Show
|
RC Airplane Flying Demonstration
|
Skydiving Exhibition
|
Ultralight Flying Display
|
Children will also enjoy being there since they can also fly kites while you are enjoying the shows (just make sure that someone is attending to them).
We also enjoyed the Drift Demo sponsored by Goodyear. There were some who got lucky to enjoy the drift ride.
Demos on Rescues were also shown in this event.
View other photos:
Photos of Hot Air Balloon (Part 1)
Photos of Hot Air Balloon (Part 2)
