| – New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning | |
|---|---|
| Begins | Third Friday in July |
| Ends | Sunday |
| Frequency | Annual |
| Location(s) | Readington Township, New Jersey |
| Inaugurated | 1983 |
| Participants | Balloonists |
The New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning has been held annually at the Solberg Airport in Readington Township, New Jersey since 1983. Its lead sponsor is New Jersey Lottery . In 2012, the festival hosted around 125 special shape and sport hot air balloons. It also had music concerts, crafters and vendors, food, carnival rides and fireworks, which attracted more than 175,000 people. It had more than fifty corporate partners.
In 1983, Bill Lewis, working with USA Today, brought approximately ten hot air balloons to the Union 76 Truck Stop on Interstate 78 in New Jersey for the inaugural event. After two years they moved the festival to its current site at Solberg Airport where it grew to 40-50 balloons and 30,000-40,000 attendees. In 1993, Howard Freeman and John Korff acquired the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning and signed a long-term deal with Solberg Airport. That same year they secured a long term sponsorship agreement with QuickChek. In time, the festival has become the largest event in New Jersey and the largest summertime balloon festival in North America.
In 2000, to differentiate the festival from other balloon festivals, major concerts were added to the festival. The first concert presented the legendary band, The Beach Boys. Each subsequent festival included three major concerts. Headliners have included The Doobie Brothers, Hall & Oates, Styx, Foreigner, America, Jonas Brothers and KC & the Sunshine Band.
2020 the Festival of Ballooning began a new partnership with the New Jersey Lottery becoming the festival's title sponsor. Unfortunately, later on in the year the festival got cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It resumed in July 2021.
A portion of all proceeds from the festival are donated to the Children's Miracle Network, which funds three pediatric hospitals in New Jersey.
Since 2004, the festival has hired a virgin to perform a ritual to ensure good weather for the festival. Howard Freeman, one of the organizers, claims the ritual comes from Singapore. It involves having a virgin drive a golf cart to each of the four corners of the festival site. At each corner she picks up blades of grass, mumbles random words, penetrates whole onions and peppers with knives, then jams the knives with the produce into the ground. [1]
The 2007 virgin, Victoria Brumfield (born 1979), said it is a mixture of "fun and embarrassment" and that "if it does rain, my virtue is not to blame. I'm waiting until I'm married and no one has asked yet." She is a devout Mormon. [1] [2] [3]
A hot air balloon is a lighter-than-air aircraft consisting of a bag, called an envelope, which contains heated air. Suspended beneath is a gondola or wicker basket, which carries passengers and a source of heat, in most cases an open flame caused by burning liquid propane. The heated air inside the envelope makes it buoyant, since it has a lower density than the colder air outside the envelope. As with all aircraft, hot air balloons cannot fly beyond the atmosphere. The envelope does not have to be sealed at the bottom, since the air inside the envelope is at about the same pressure as the surrounding air. In modern sport balloons the envelope is generally made from nylon fabric, and the inlet of the balloon is made from a fire-resistant material such as Nomex. Modern balloons have been made in many shapes, such as rocket ships and the shapes of various commercial products, though the traditional shape is used for most non-commercial and many commercial applications.
In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point. It is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat that can propel itself through the air in a controlled manner.
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is a yearly hot air balloon festival that takes place in Albuquerque, New Mexico, during early October. The Balloon Fiesta is a nine-day event occurring in the first full week of October, and has over 500 hot air balloons each year far from its humble beginnings of merely 13 balloons in 1972. The event is the largest balloon festival in the world, followed by the Grand Est Mondial Air in France.
The Bluegrass Balloon Festival, formerly called the Adam Matthews Balloon Festival, was the fifth largest hot air balloon festival in the United States, and the largest in the state of Kentucky. From 1999 to 2009, it was held annually in late September at Bowman Field in Louisville, Kentucky.
A gas balloon is a balloon that rises and floats in the air because it is filled with a gas lighter than air. When not in flight, it is tethered to prevent it from flying away and is sealed at the bottom to prevent the escape of gas. A gas balloon may also be called a Charlière for its inventor, the Frenchman Jacques Charles. Today, familiar gas balloons include large blimps and small latex party balloons. For nearly 200 years, well into the 20th century, manned balloon flight utilized gas balloons before hot-air balloons became dominant. Without power, heat or fuel, untethered flights of gas balloons depended on the skill of the pilot. Gas balloons have greater lift for a given volume, so they do not need to be so large, and they can stay up for much longer than hot air balloons.
The Great Pershing Balloon Derby is a hot air balloon festival held each Labor Day weekend near Brookfield, Missouri. The three-day festival draws balloonists from the midwest and as far away as Florida and the Pacific Northwest. It is named in honor of General John J. Pershing, leader of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I and a native of nearby Laclede, Missouri. The Great Pershing Balloon Derby (GPBD) has been recognized as the longest running continually sanctioned ballooning event in the U.S. by the Balloon Federation of America.
Paul Edward Yost was the American inventor of the modern hot air balloon and is referred to as the "Father of the Modern Day Hot-Air Balloon." He worked for a high-altitude research division of General Mills in the early 1950s until he left to establish Raven Industries in 1956, along with several colleagues from General Mills.
Torres is a city on the coast of south Brazil in the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The city has a population of approximately 40,000 inhabitants, of which 10,000 live in rural zones, but in summer the number of inhabitants reaches 300,000.
Hot air ballooning is the activity of flying hot air balloons. Attractive aspects of ballooning include the exceptional quiet, the lack of a feeling of movement, and the bird's-eye view. Since the balloon moves with the direction of the winds, the passengers feel absolutely no wind, except for brief periods during the flight when the balloon climbs or descends into air currents of different direction or speed. Hot air ballooning has been recognized by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) as the safest air sport in aviation, and fatalities in hot air balloon accidents are rare, according to statistics from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Per Lindstrand is a Swedish aeronautical engineer, pilot, adventurer and entrepreneur. He is particularly known for his series of record-breaking trans-oceanic hot air balloon flights and, later, attempts to be the first to fly a Rozière balloon around the Earth – all with British entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson. He is also the founder of eponymous Lindstrand Balloons hot air balloon manufacturer based in Oswestry, England.
Virgin Balloon Flights, with headquarters in Telford, Shropshire, began flying hot air balloons in 1994 and its passengers are still flown in red and white balloons with the Virgin Group logo on the side of the balloon.
Plano Balloon Festival is held each September at Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve in the city of Plano, Texas. It is one of the city's largest celebrations, drawing in excess of 90,000 attendees. Celebrating 40 years of its existence, the festival has evolved into an important fundraiser for local nonprofit organizations. InTouch Credit Union is the festival's main sponsor.
The Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta is an annual four-day event held between January and February at the Clark Freeport Zone in Pampanga. It is the biggest and longest-running aviation sports event in the Philippines.
Solberg–Hunterdon Airport, also known as Solberg Airport, is located in Readington Township, New Jersey, United States.
The history of ballooning, both with hot air and gas, spans many centuries. It includes many firsts, including the first human flight, first flight across the English Channel, first flight in North America, and first aircraft related disaster.
The Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival is held annually, the first weekend of June at Lake Skinner Recreation Area in the Temecula Valley AVA of Southern California. The event features morning balloon launches, evening balloon glows, wine tasting from more than 20 wineries, wine competition, food and wine pairing, concerts featuring country on Friday, Classic Rock and Rock on Saturday, and Jazz on Sunday. There is also a giant arts and craft faire, kids faire, and fine art paintings on exhibit within the wine gardens. In 2020 and 2021 it was not held due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Les Frères Robert were two French brothers. Anne-Jean Robert (1758–1820) and Nicolas-Louis Robert (1760–1820) were the engineers who built the world's first hydrogen balloon for professor Jacques Charles, which flew from central Paris on 27 August 1783. They went on to build the world's first manned hydrogen balloon, and on 1 December 1783 Nicolas-Louis accompanied Jacques Charles on a 2-hour, 5-minute flight. Their barometer and thermometer made it the first balloon flight to provide meteorological measurements of the atmosphere above the Earth's surface.
Ultramagic is a manufacturer of hot air balloons, based at the Igualada-Òdena Aerodrome, province of Barcelona, Catalonia. It is the only manufacturer of hot air balloons in Spain, and the second largest in the world. The company produces from 80 to 120 balloons per year, with 80% of them exported to Europe, North America, South America, Africa and Japan. The company can produce massive balloons, such as the N-500 that accommodates up to 27 persons in the basket. Ultramagic has also produced many balloons with special shapes, as well as cold air inflatables.
David N. Levin was an American balloonist. He is the only balloonist to have completed the "triple crown" by winning the World Gas Balloon Championship, the World Hot Air Ballooning Championships and the Gordon Bennett Cup. In 1992, Levin also became the first balloonist to win ballooning's four major events, having won the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship along with the "triple crown".
Eleanor Vadala is an American chemist, materials engineer and balloonist. She became director of research and development at the Naval Air Development Center in Pennsylvania, where she helped to develop light synthetic materials for use in aircraft. One of her jobs was the testing of fabric in existing balloons to ensure they could be used safely.
