Festival delivers feel-good factor

The full moon shone on a giant sun and crowd of more than 6000, colourful balloons drifted over Masterton backyards and Wairarapa countryside, and paraded through the sky above Carterton’s Main Street in one of the most successful balloon festivals held in the region.

The move to a four-day event, combined with favourable weather, saw six of the seven scheduled events go ahead, attracting thousands of spectators, both local and visitors.

Saturday evening’s Trust House Night Glow attracted the largest crowd for a number of years, many from outside of Wairarapa. The centrepiece, Sunny Boy, sparkled to the tunes of “Here Comes the Sun and “You are my Sunshine” in concert with a giant Easter egg and a host of glowing balloons.

‘Balloon meister’ Martyn Stacey from Christchurch said the festival had delivered a much-needed feel-good factor to both the public and pilots. “With the tragic events of the last month both at home and overseas, it was great to see the response of sheer pleasure from all sorts of people.”

“The four-day format was great and the pilots love flying in Wairarapa - it is a brilliant place to fly balloons. The variations of what can be done here allowed us to be flexible on the day to suit the conditions.”

Friday morning’s event was shifted at the last minute to Hood Aerodrome when conditions in Carterton were too breezy. As a result Sunday morning’s event was transferred to Carterton where perfect flying conditions saw 22 balloons compete in a competition over Wild Oats Café and continue with the wind to Greytown. The burner parade through Carterton on Thursday evening, and flights from Wairarapa College on Friday evening and Henley Lake Saturday morning together attracted thousands. Sunny Boy brightened the skies providing a second ‘sunrise’ on three mornings and made two more tethered appearances on the ground.

“An enormous amount of goodwill from local volunteers and sponsors makes this an event which everyone can enjoy and which continues to put Wairarapa on the map in a very positive way,” said event organiser Jonathan Hooker. “There are many people who do a power of work behind the scenes and longstanding supporter Trust House is crucial to this event.”

Speaking at the festival prize-giving after a balloon flight over his town on Sunday, Carterton Mayor Ron Mark asked the 24 pilots to keep returning to the region for an event that was ‘truly special’. “We absolutely love having you here. I can now see why you fly and love ballooning – we look forward to hosting you again.”

Destination Wairarapa Marketing Manager, Barb Hyde, who also took her first balloon flight on Sunday said the festival was ‘quintessentially Wairarapa’. “Regardless of being a fabulous event for locals, it is clearly bringing visitors here.”

“Camping grounds were full - not just with tents with a couple of people but with whole family groups. They’d enjoyed a whole weekend in Wairarapa, been to the night glow which cost them next to nothing and stayed, shopped and eaten here.”

“The balloon festival motivates others to hold complementary events around it and this year it provided one of our biggest weekends ever,” Ms Hyde said.

The ballooning competition winner was longstanding participant Michael Oakley of Darfield. Peter King of Carterton was runner up and Ross Sale of Auckland took third place.
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