Three penguin balloon drew me to the Adirondack Balloon Festival last year. Photo provided by Ken Tingley
My scrapbook has lots of photos of hot-air balloons.
Lots and lots and lots.
There are photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s when we first moved to Glens Falls. There is another spurt of photos after Joseph was born in 1996 and sitting on his mother’s shoulders.
When you are born in Glens Falls, you grow up with hot-air balloons all around you whether you like it or not.
And there are even photos from last year when I was drawn, not so much by the 50th anniversary of the Adirondack Balloon Festival, but giant penguin balloons.
I love penguins.
Three penguin balloon drew me to the Adirondack Balloon Festival last year.
None of this is unique for any of you. I suspect most of you have your own photos of the balloon festival at Crandall Park, SUNY Adirondack, the Moonglow in Lake George or any of those ridiculously early mornings at Warren County Airport.
If you’ve got relatives from out of town, sooner or later they all make their way here for balloon festival weekend to be amazed.
Of course, there is nothing worse – other than the traffic getting out of the airport – than finding out the balloons are grounded after being up since 4 a.m.
But here is the most important point. If you’ve been there on one of those perfectly calm mornings and witnessed 100 balloons ascending all around you almost simultaneously, well, then you know what heaven must be like.
A launch from 2023. We should never take the balloon festival for granted.
The tragedy is we take it for granted.
The shame is we often ignore this amazing event right in our own backyard to do chores in the yard, or watch a football game on television, because we’ve seen it before.
People can be fickle that way.
This is a reminder that Thursday the Adirondack Balloon Festival begins its second half-century of delivering wonder and awe and that none of us should take it for granted.
Mark Donahue, the current president of the festival, and Amy Lapoint, author of the book Pilot Memoirsm, were regaling a full-house at the Chapman Museum on Wednesday evening about what it takes to put on a balloon festival.
Donahue, who inherited the job from legendary founder Walt Grishkot and his wife Joan, must have teared up a half-dozen times telling stories about the balloon festival, the camaraderie, the dedication of the organizers and the ability to pull this event off for a half-century.
Twenty-three years earlier on 9/11, the balloon festival was in danger of being canceled. It was not something I remembered and certainly not something most of us were worried about at the time.
The FAA had grounded all aircraft after the attacks and the Adirondack Balloon Festival was told it would have to cancel.
“I had a direct link to (Sen.) Chuck Schumer the week before,” Donahue remembered. “Then, three or four days before, I was told to `Hold everything!’ We were eventually given the green light. We became the first national event allowed to go on after 9/11.”
It made balloon pilot Allen Emer’s actions possible later at the festival.
Balloon pilot Alan Emer actually did this in 2001 to cheers of “USA, USA, USA…”
Without the festival’s knowledge, Emer rigged a harness and attached a wooden platform to the top of his hot-air balloon.
As his balloon inflated, Emer rode the balloon to the top where he positioned himself on top of the balloon and waved an American flag while patriotic music played below. As the crowd spied Emer atop his balloon, cars began to honk their horns and and the crowd began to chant “USA, USA, USA…”
Yeah, Mark Donahue started crying then, too.
We all have our own stories of the balloon festival.
But here is something to remember for this year.
Donahue said sponsorships and donations are off 20 percent this year. He said inflation has hurt local businesses and they are cutting back. He mentioned several times during his presentation how Warren County had cut back on its bed tax contributions – including last year during the 50th anniversary – but he praised Queensbury supervisor John Strough for coming to the rescue.
Remember, the balloon festival is a non-profit that brings an astonishing number of visitors to our communities during the fall season.
Mark Donahue and Amy Lapoint at the Chapman Museum Wednesday night.
Fifty years is a long time to keep an event not only running, but appealing to visitors throughout the region.
Even now, it’s hard not to stop what you are doing when you see the balloons on the horizon.
It’s an event that continues to manufacture smiles and brighten days.
I’m sure when Mark Donahue reads that, there will more tears.
Balloon festival Thursday
The Adirondack Balloon Festival will kick off its 51st year on Thursday, Sept. 19 at Crandall Park with a 5:30 p.m. balloon launch of 15 balloons.
It will continue Friday afternoon at Warren County Airport, Saturday morning and evening at the airport, and Sunday morning at the airport.
Click here to view the Adirondack Balloon Festival schedule.
Special thank you to journalists, Ken Tingley and Will Doolittle, for allowing The Adirondack Almanack to share content from their online newsletter with our readers.
About them: Two retired North Country journalists continue to lend their voices to the issues and debates of our time. Ken Tingley, editor of The Post-Star in Glens Falls for 21 years, and Will Doolittle, who spent time at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Malone Telegram before landing at The Post-Star for 30 years, have joined forces to produce a newsletter on Substack covering local news four times week. Substack is an online newsletter that is delivered by email to each subscriber.
Tingley and Doolittle, both award-winning columnists during their careers, continue to weigh in and add contest to North Country issues, including the actions of Rep. Elise Stefanik. Tingley produces columns every Monday, Wednesday and Friday while Doolittle writes a Sunday column. While the newsletter is free to all subscribers, readers may support the work by buying a paid subscription.
To subscribe, you just need to insert an email address and you will automatically receive the content. To subscribe for free or make a paid contribution, click here. To review some of the past columns, click here.
Don’t take Adirondack Balloon Festival for granted
My scrapbook has lots of photos of hot-air balloons.
Lots and lots and lots.
There are photos from the late 1980s and early 1990s when we first moved to Glens Falls. There is another spurt of photos after Joseph was born in 1996 and sitting on his mother’s shoulders.
And there are even photos from last year when I was drawn, not so much by the 50th anniversary of the Adirondack Balloon Festival, but giant penguin balloons.
I love penguins.
None of this is unique for any of you. I suspect most of you have your own photos of the balloon festival at Crandall Park, SUNY Adirondack, the Moonglow in Lake George or any of those ridiculously early mornings at Warren County Airport.
If you’ve got relatives from out of town, sooner or later they all make their way here for balloon festival weekend to be amazed.
Of course, there is nothing worse – other than the traffic getting out of the airport – than finding out the balloons are grounded after being up since 4 a.m.
But here is the most important point. If you’ve been there on one of those perfectly calm mornings and witnessed 100 balloons ascending all around you almost simultaneously, well, then you know what heaven must be like.
The tragedy is we take it for granted.
The shame is we often ignore this amazing event right in our own backyard to do chores in the yard, or watch a football game on television, because we’ve seen it before.
People can be fickle that way.
This is a reminder that Thursday the Adirondack Balloon Festival begins its second half-century of delivering wonder and awe and that none of us should take it for granted.
Mark Donahue, the current president of the festival, and Amy Lapoint, author of the book Pilot Memoirsm, were regaling a full-house at the Chapman Museum on Wednesday evening about what it takes to put on a balloon festival.
Donahue, who inherited the job from legendary founder Walt Grishkot and his wife Joan, must have teared up a half-dozen times telling stories about the balloon festival, the camaraderie, the dedication of the organizers and the ability to pull this event off for a half-century.
Twenty-three years earlier on 9/11, the balloon festival was in danger of being canceled. It was not something I remembered and certainly not something most of us were worried about at the time.
The FAA had grounded all aircraft after the attacks and the Adirondack Balloon Festival was told it would have to cancel.
“I had a direct link to (Sen.) Chuck Schumer the week before,” Donahue remembered. “Then, three or four days before, I was told to `Hold everything!’ We were eventually given the green light. We became the first national event allowed to go on after 9/11.”
It made balloon pilot Allen Emer’s actions possible later at the festival.
Without the festival’s knowledge, Emer rigged a harness and attached a wooden platform to the top of his hot-air balloon.
As his balloon inflated, Emer rode the balloon to the top where he positioned himself on top of the balloon and waved an American flag while patriotic music played below. As the crowd spied Emer atop his balloon, cars began to honk their horns and and the crowd began to chant “USA, USA, USA…”
Yeah, Mark Donahue started crying then, too.
We all have our own stories of the balloon festival.
But here is something to remember for this year.
Donahue said sponsorships and donations are off 20 percent this year. He said inflation has hurt local businesses and they are cutting back. He mentioned several times during his presentation how Warren County had cut back on its bed tax contributions – including last year during the 50th anniversary – but he praised Queensbury supervisor John Strough for coming to the rescue.
Remember, the balloon festival is a non-profit that brings an astonishing number of visitors to our communities during the fall season.
Fifty years is a long time to keep an event not only running, but appealing to visitors throughout the region.
Even now, it’s hard not to stop what you are doing when you see the balloons on the horizon.
It’s an event that continues to manufacture smiles and brighten days.
I’m sure when Mark Donahue reads that, there will more tears.
Balloon festival Thursday
The Adirondack Balloon Festival will kick off its 51st year on Thursday, Sept. 19 at Crandall Park with a 5:30 p.m. balloon launch of 15 balloons.
It will continue Friday afternoon at Warren County Airport, Saturday morning and evening at the airport, and Sunday morning at the airport.
Click here to view the Adirondack Balloon Festival schedule.
Special thank you to journalists, Ken Tingley and Will Doolittle, for allowing The Adirondack Almanack to share content from their online newsletter with our readers.
About them: Two retired North Country journalists continue to lend their voices to the issues and debates of our time. Ken Tingley, editor of The Post-Star in Glens Falls for 21 years, and Will Doolittle, who spent time at the Adirondack Daily Enterprise and Malone Telegram before landing at The Post-Star for 30 years, have joined forces to produce a newsletter on Substack covering local news four times week. Substack is an online newsletter that is delivered by email to each subscriber.
Tingley and Doolittle, both award-winning columnists during their careers, continue to weigh in and add contest to North Country issues, including the actions of Rep. Elise Stefanik. Tingley produces columns every Monday, Wednesday and Friday while Doolittle writes a Sunday column. While the newsletter is free to all subscribers, readers may support the work by buying a paid subscription.
To subscribe, you just need to insert an email address and you will automatically receive the content. To subscribe for free or make a paid contribution, click here. To review some of the past columns, click here.