High winds kept the Autumn Aloft event grounded last weekend, but organizers report the hot air balloon event was still a success.
The Autumn Aloft saw a bit of a hiccup in their event. Event Organizer Meisha Ross says that the winds on Saturday and Sunday prevented the balloons from taking flight.
"We always say that safety is our number one priority, if there’s any question if its going to be too windy it’s not worth it for us." Ross explained, "We try to inflate as many balloons as the pilots felt comfortable. One of the most spectacular things about Autumn Aloft is really seeing the balloons inflated once they take off and its in a normal year that experience is over because they fly away. We tried to get the balloons inflated so that people could still have that experience of the balloons inflated on the field and understanding and seeing the magnitude of the balloons. What we saw happened was that even with the wind gusts we weren’t’ able to stand-up as much as we would’ve liked.”
Ross says that they still saw good sized crowds for the morning events and the candlestick event that happened Saturday evening.
“We didn’t want to say the event was cancelled because there was still activity going on in the field." Ross continued, "There was still an experience to be had. It was really fun from an organizers standpoint to see the people who did come out enjoy the day and enjoy being amongst their friends and family and seeing the balloons. They still got a great experience. Obviously, after we worked on the event for a year it’s definitely not what we want to happen, but no one can control the weather. I think we made the best of it, I think that it was still good.”
