Extra, extra: There's more to Balloon Fiesta than mass ascensions

In 2016, her first year in the artisans tent at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, stained glass artist Tamara Phillips-Kingery put out 75 of her ornamental balloons for the first morning session.

“They were gone in a couple of hours,” she said. “Every year, I put out more balloons on the first day, and every year we sell out. This year, I’ll have around 300 balloons out when we start the show.”

Extra, extra: There's more to Balloon Fiesta than mass ascensions

Phillips-Kingery, owner of Rio Rancho’s Celtic Moon Studios, is one of about 30 artists and crafts persons who inhabit the Artisans at Balloon Fiesta tent at Balloon Fiesta Park during the course of the event. They come from throughout out the country and offer a diverse variety of arts and crafts.

“There are metal artists, jewelers, people who work in clay, pressed flowers, candles.” Phillips-Kingery said. “The vibe among the artists is very much family. We look out for each other. I’ll tell a customer, ‘My stuff won’t work for you, but this person over here has what you want.’ There’s something for everyone.”

Phillips-Kingery creates her stained glass art in many special shapes other than balloons.

“We sell everything — bats, pumpkins, Thanksgiving and Christmas, beetles, bees, dragonflies and flowers,” she said. “But the balloon items are the bestsellers. I put year charms on the balloons and I have people come back year after year to add to their collection.”

The artisans’ tent is representative of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta as a whole. It’s not just mass ascensions and balloon glows. There are chainsaw wood carvers, skydivers, fireworks, drone light shows.

On the north side of the field, just west of the artisans’ tent, is the Balloon Discovery Center.

“Our mission is to inspire a love of ballooning for the next generation,” said Tracey Hawkins, who is in her second year as the Discovery Center manager.

Hawkins said adults come into the Discovery Center to look around, but the center’s target audience are kids from the upper elementary grades to middle school.

Exhibits include “Parts of a Balloon,” which has large graphics detailing how a balloon is constructed; “Albuquerque Box,” an interactive exhibit that shows how Albuquerque’s unique wind patterns make the city ideal for hot-air ballooning; and “Wicker Weaving,” which gives visitors a chance to weave wicker into a balloon gondola, or at least a portion of one.

“We have a balloon, inflated by fans, inside the center that kids and families can walk inside of,” Hawkins said. “We have new interactive touch screens that show how weather affects ballooning.

“We have one interactive simulator that gives six players four minutes to land a balloon at Fiesta Park. It’s about the winds. If I’m on the south side of a field, I need a north wind to push me to the target.”

Hawkins said an arts and crafts section offers children the chance to color and doodle. She said kids under 12 are given a passport when they enter the center, and if they get that marked at seven of the Discovery Center’s activities, they get to choose a prize.

“It gets a little crazy,” Hawkins said. “We had 38,000 people enter the tent last year. If you are not good at the simulators, you can go draw and doodle.”

Melissa Bond is the Globitos balloonmeister at the fiesta. Globitos are remote-controlled hot air balloons that are one-fourth the size of full-size balloons. They don’t carry passengers. In fact, they don’t get off a tether at the fiesta. Globitos’ propane tanks are operated by remote control.

“We show our balloons and keep the crowds on the field to share ballooning with children and adults,” Bond said. “The advantage of Globitos is that they are very attractive and very approachable because they are smaller. It is easier for people to come up to us and talk about ballooning.”

She said some people prefer flying Globitos by remote control to operating a full-sized balloon from a gondola.

“It is just easier to put the envelope and basket in the car and go to a park and fly,” she said. “It is not as expensive as the big balloons, and we can repair rips (in the balloons) ourselves.”

There will be 78 Globitos at the fiesta this year. They will be on display from 7:30-11 a.m. on Sunday, Oct. 6, Wednesday, Oct. 9, and Friday, Oct. 11. The Globitos will do a balloon glow at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 12.

She said about 15 of the Globitos at this year’s fiesta will be special shapes. There will be returning favorites such as Peter Porker, a pig, and Airiel, a unicorn. New shapes expected at the fiesta are Biscuit, a dog; Dolly, a donkey; and Zozobra.