Bristol Balloon Fiesta: Hot air balloons to take off from secret locations

Last year's community launches are back, and you can nominate where they'll lift off from!

Author: Ana Da SilvaPublished 22nd Jun 2022

Hot air balloons will be setting off from secret locations across Bristol again, ahead of this year's Bristol International Balloon Fiesta.

After the success of last year’s community launches, which saw hundreds of hot air balloons take off from secret locations across the city, the much-loved launches will once again be returning to this year's Balloon Fiesta to officially kick off 2022’s festivities.

This year, the Fiesta is returning to its original home at Ashton Court Estate for the first time since before the pandemic.

Locals will once again be able to nominate the locations where they would like to see balloons lift off, which could be anywhere from local parks to public spaces, car parks or streets.

Last year, over 700 nominations were submitted by locals to help choose the balloon launch locations, which included a mass ascent from Elm Park in Filton, Canford Park and Merchants’ Academy in Withywood.

Christoph Allcock, Chair of the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta said: “After seeing how much-loved the special edition of the Fiesta was last year, we are really looking forward to bringing the community launches back for 2022. We are so thankful to Costa Coffee for partnering with us to help this happen and we can’t wait to see where Fiesta fans want to see the balloons fly from next. It’s important to us that everyone gets to experience the Balloon Fiesta, especially communities that rarely get balloons overhead.”

Nominations are now live on the Fiesta website and locations will be revealed closer to the morning of the ascents.

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