The biennial Grand Est Mondial Air Ballons ballooning festival is famous for its audacious hot air balloon world record-breaking attempts. This year was no exception. The balmy temperatures of the beginning of August provided the perfect backdrop for this 10-day ballooning festival, which attracts 1000 hot air balloons from 70 countries around the world.
Each year the festival features two daily mass ascents – one in the morning and one in the evening – to attempt to break the world record for the largest number of hot air balloons departing within an hour of each other and flying all at once.
The festival takes place in Chambley near Metz in North East France and this year, 456 balloons took to the skies in the mass ascent attempt. Though this 2019 attempt not manage to smash the record that the same festival had previously set in 2017, when 456 balloons also made it into the air, the site of such an array of balloons soaring overhead was nonetheless impressive.
Balloons of all shapes and sizes – animals, palaces, bottle of champagne, even screwdrivers – and of all colours of the rainbow filled the skies above the Lorraine region and delighted the 40000 visitors who came to the festival this year.
If you want to experience the thrill of a hot air balloon flight away from the crowds and closer to home, we offer individual hot air balloon experiences in Bath, Bristol, Gloucester and other areas of the South West of the UK. Contact us to find out more.
