Every hot air balloon that goes up has to come down, and in Farmington, the neighbors who step off their porches to help pack it away are part of the draw.
The Four Corners Balloon Rally returned this fall with ascensions and evening glows. Friday’s weather grounded pilots, but balloons took to the sky on Saturday. Learn more at farmingtonnm.gov.
This story is sponsored by Empire Athletics and Ace Hardware of Farmington.
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Transcript
Ballooning is a very organic sport. Every balloon that goes up must land, and so you land, your pilot gets out, your crew comes and they, they find your balloon and they, they pack you up and, and do all the things. And then there’s people in the community that just kind of come out. They either come off their front porch or, you know, they come just, they pop along, stop alongside the road and say, “Hey, can we help you?” For that reason, it brings a community together. You know, communities are best when they’re made of all types of individuals. And, and so everyone from all walks of life can come out and enjoy a balloon rally.
You’re watching the Local News Network, brought to you by Empire Athletics and Ace Hardware Farmington. The Four Corners Balloon Rally is a three-day hot air balloon festival held each fall in Farmington. Pilots from around the country bring standard and special shaped balloons for morning mass ascensions at Lake Farmington and the Animas Valley Mall, then light up the evening sky with balloon glows at San Juan College and the Farmington Civic Center. The city of Farmington revived the rally in 2022, ending a roughly 20-year gap without a major balloon event in town. During this year’s balloon rally, weather conditions didn’t permit takeoff at Farmington Lake Friday morning, nor did they allow pilots to inflate their balloons Friday evening at San Juan College. But that didn’t stop the community from coming together.
Ballooning is, is a very touchy sport, if you will. Part of the reason we have a multi-day event is because the weather can be pretty touchy. So if it’s too windy you can’t launch or it’s not safe to launch in a lot of conditions. Rain is a no-go. Rain and, and hot air ballooning does not, does not go well together at all. And then the clouds. A lot of times people say, “Okay, it seems pretty calm, so why are we not flying?” And a lot of that’s just the cloud formations and, and what those clouds bring in with them, et cetera. So it is very weather dependent.
Saturday, however, conditions for the morning flight were fantastic as well as in the evening for the glow at the Farmington Civic Center. Hot air balloons first lifted off over Farmington in the 1970s. Over the decades, the rally changed names, moved between local organizers and took the occasional break. The longest run came as the Farmington Invitational Balloon Festival, which lasted about 20 years before ending in the early 2000s. After that, Farmington went roughly two decades without a major annual balloon event. That, however, changed in 2022. The city of Farmington and local organizers brought the event back as the Four Corners Balloon Rally.
It’s just a catalyst again to bring, bring citizens together to do something fun. It’s the friendships that are made. It’s the connections that people find when they come together. The organic nature of this event to really bring people together in our community. And the, the common denominator there is just their love for ballooning and their love for, you know, what, what ballooning brings to a community.
Thank you for watching this edition of the Local News Network. To learn more, visit farmingtonnm.gov. And for more stories like this, visit LNN.news.
