'Family affair in the air': Rita Brennan, family hold deep Balloon Fiesta ties

RIO RANCHO — The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, just a little weeks away, has become quite the tradition in New Mexico.

But for Rio Rancho native Rita Brennan, this tradition runs a little bit deeper.

“My four children and I all learned to crew (a hot air balloon),” Brennan said. “My oldest daughter, Amy, was a launch director, and she is now in scoring with me. My second daughter, Kat, was a launch director. My third daughter, Alex, was crew, and my son Ben was crew and is now in his first year as a launch director. So it’s been a family affair.”

Rita Brennan has attended almost every Balloon Fiesta since 1994, eventually joining the volunteer staff in 2007. She became assistant chief of scoring in 2015 before being appointed to head scoring chief in 2023, as she once again will be an official for this year’s installment.

Brennan attended the fiesta a few times in her youth, but her love for the event would not truly begin until she met her eventual husband, Bill Brennan, at the 1994 rendition of the Albuquerque spectacle.

“It was my husband’s love for it, and he got involved. He moved here from Massachusetts in 1976, and he started crewing,” Rita Brennan said. “He just loved it. And then in the ‘90s, I became a launch director, and so it just became a way of life for us.”

Love (and hot air balloons) were in the air in ‘94, and the Brennans quickly became staples of the fiesta community. The only year they’ve missed it? The year their son Ben was born on Oct. 4, right before the festival.

As years and fiestas passed, Rita and Bill grew from the balloon-crazed couple to a fiesta-loving family of five, with all three children becoming a part of the festival in one way or another.

But whether it’s their own blood or friends turned family made along the way, every fiesta for the Brennans feels like a family reunion. One example: a close bond with pilot Max Mitchell, who taught the whole family how to crew.

“Max Mitchell from Champaign, Illinois, the pilot who was so generous to us, that’s the only time we saw him and his family, once a year,” Rita Brennan said. “But we got to see his kids grow up, and he got to see our kids grow up. I think that’s what it means the most to me, is the time with family that you see once a year.”

While the Brennan family grew, so did the fiesta. Rita has seen milestones such as the event moving to bigger fields, the development of Balloon Fiesta Park location in Albuquerque, and a record 1,000 balloons showcased at the millennium-opening fiesta in 2000.

Even the “facilities” have improved in her time.

“With the addition of the actual Balloon Fiesta Park, we now have the Memorial Building right there,” Rita Brennan said. “So, to say it professionally, the ‘amenities’ are better.”

Another change to the fiesta will be coming in a few weeks, with the scoring committee using a new program to tabulate scores for the 2025 contest.

“It’s called ‘Watch Me Fly,’” Rita Brennan said. “We’re going with it; it will be a challenge, as it is anytime trying something new, but it’s also exciting to be on the cutting edge of technology and doing new things. We’re hoping it’ll produce the results a lot faster for the pilots.”

Brennan and the scoring officials will kick their new program into gear in a little over two weeks, with the fiesta set to begin on Oct. 4.

“I look forward to embracing the new technology that we’re going to be using, and the competitors have such a wonderful time,” Rita Brennan said. “It’s really a fun thing.”