Around the fiesta

Not a giant Miss Minutes thankfully

The Albuquerque fiesta has morning and night sessions. 

Evening sessions involve special shape balloons and other balloons standing up for the sunset and twilight. 

For those crews who fly in the mornings, evenings are just for relaxation. Afternoons are for napping and recovering from the early starts. There is much more to uncover in the evenings. Some of us crewed with undermanned balloons. Wandering the grounds until the day’s festivities ended was fair game. I took advantage of that when I could. 

The grounds are as massive as the crowds that occupy them. The Friday evening session felt nearly perfect. The crew had dinner, then watched the stunt parachutists land on the field. The descend from a plane with smoke effects and flags attached to their feet. Hacving seen it several times, it's a good break from the balloons. 

Once the jump team finished their routine, the special-shaped balloons for the evening glow stood up. No one flies, but the crowds still run thick. 

The people-watching is intense. Plenty of locals converge on the field, but the crowd is unsurprisingly international. The world’s largest hot-air balloon fiesta deserves no less. 

 The skies above Albuquerque provided an artist’s backdrop thanks to the sun at day’s end and some high, wispy clouds. No threatening weather loomed, just a picturesque western sunset and twilight. The thin clouds and the bursts of propane fire into the balloons added to the colors. 

Roaming is a necessity. While walking around, I stumbled onto a mariachi band busking along the midway where people stood in long lines for beer, friend food and souvenirs. For a few minutes, I only had eyes for the mariachi. I tipped them and didn’t demand a song request so I could take pictures. 

Nights ended with drone shows and fireworks displays. The drones have taken on a larger role, assembling in the sky to produce image s of New Mexico chile peppers, slot machines at the nearby pueblo casinos, balloons, and the all-important New Mexico state flag. 

On the last fiesta’s night, our crew camped right behind the fireworks cannons. When the balloons began to drift down, the fireworks went off and filled the east and north horizons.