The 13th annual Crown of Maine Balloon Fest has come and gone, bringing another community festival as summer transitions into fall.
With Aroostook County uniquely situated for hot air ballooning, the late August festival continues to be a success, despite some fickle weather this year that prevented two balloon launches, said Theresa Fowler, executive director of the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce.
The four-day festival has developed a range of community activities, including a Main Street fair in downtown Presque Isle Thursday evening and a two days of music, food, arts and crafts at the Northern Maine Fairgrounds.
Twelve pilots travelled from near and far to fly this year, including Marcos Bonimcontro, from Sao Paulo, Brazil, flying the Tribirds balloon.
Ballooning is a sport that largely started with the first hot air balloon flight with humans on October 19, 1783, in Paris, in a balloon built by Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier of Annonay, France. On August 17, 1978 the first transatlantic hot air balloon flight landed in Miserey, France, more than five days after the balloon launched from Spragueville Road in Presque Isle not far from Aroostook State Park.
“There’s no other mode of transport that is the same as this,” said Derik Smith, the Presque Isle-based owner of KFC and Taco Bell who pilots the balloon Queen of Hearts. “You don’t feel the motion. You don’t feel hurried. You’re in the wind. You can’t exert your will on it. You have to go with the flow.”
Smith got started as a volunteer helping launch balloons and earned his license in 2010. “That first trip in the balloon set something off. Central Aroostook is just a gorgeous place to fly.”
Plans for the 2017 Crown of Maine Balloon Fest start in September, said Fowler.
“If anyone is interested in helping build this event, we ask that they contact the Central Aroostook Chamber of Commerce,” she said. “We are hoping to have more committee members to keep this event healthy and growing.”
