Save The Date

Join us October 5-13, 2024 for the 52nd Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta powered by ExxonMobil in Albuquerque, New Mexico. More information available at www.balloonfiesta.com.

Breaking News: Balloon Fiesta Makes USA Today 10Best List!

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is a winner in the 2024 USA TODAY 10Best Readers' Choice travel award contest for Best Cultural Festival. A panel of USA Today and Gannett experts nominated 20 cultural events for the 10Best voting. After four weeks of digital voting, the Balloon Fiesta received a USA Today 10Best Readers' Choice Award. The international announcement was made by USA Today 10Best on March 27^th 10am MDT. You can help celebrate this recognition by visiting https://www.10best.com/awards/travel/best-cultural-festival-2024/ and sharing the great news on your social media channels! Thank you for your support of Balloon Fiesta!

Balloon Fiesta Insider

Mark your calendars - tickets for the 52^nd Balloon Fiesta will go on sale April 5, 2024, at 9 a.m. MDT! Reserve your space for our various hospitality programs, General Admission and Park & Ride buses. Below is an overview of available tickets:

General Admission - $15 per person (over the age of 12) per session

Park & Ride – Prices start at $13 per session

Gondola Club - $130 per person over the age of 6 per session

Chasers’ Club - $65 per person over the age of 6, per session

Glamping – packages start at $1,600 for a 3-night stay

Camp 505 - $800 per 2 guests for a 3-night stay

Concierge Program – packages start at $350 per session for two guests

Fiesta Sky Box - $5,000 per session for up to 20 guests

More information can be found, here: https://balloonfiesta.com/Purchase-Tickets

Merchandise Update

Easter is just around the corner and our Balloon Fiesta Stuff store has a lot of great gift suggestions for the Easter Bunny.

For the little bunnies, there’s a Balloon Fiesta-themed backpack, perfect for taking those small toys to Grandma’s house for a visit. You could even pack a copy of the Albuquerque Gerdy Book, complete with a QR code to bring the pictures to life. Or maybe the Joanna Gaines book, The World Needs Who You Were Made To Be, or even a Curious George book.

For the more seasoned bunnies, check out the 50 Years of Balloon Magic coffee table book, or one of a half dozen balloon-themed puzzles. All these items are available online at BalloonFiestaStuff.com or in person at our Gift Shop in Albuquerque. 

To be the first to know about new items, sales, and other Balloon Fiesta Stuff, make sure you are subscribed to What’s Up Wednesday. https://balloonfiestastuff.com/pages/wuw-subscribe.

Faces of Fiesta

Name: Chani Kaibetoney

Title: Assistant Merchandise Manager

Years with Balloon Fiesta: My first time at Balloon Fiesta was in the mid-‘80s. My parents were media and were covering the event. We had an amazing pilot that year and decided to keep crewing with him. I have always loved ballooning and crewing and got my husband involved when we were married in 1998. We started volunteering with Balloon Fiesta in 2016 (ish) before I got hired as a seasonal employee for merchandise in 2018. I was hired full-time as the Assistant Merchandise Manager in 2021. I work with Lisa Mulder, the merchandising manager, to help design and bring in all of the merchandise for the event, the gift shop, and the online store.

Overview: I’m a native New Mexican, born and raised in Albuquerque. My dad was in the Air Force, stationed here at Kirtland. I was married in 1998 and moved a few times while my husband was in the Army. He is from Sanostee on the Navajo Reservation in Northern NM, so when he was medically retired from the Army after a suicide bombing in Iraq almost took his life, we moved to the east mountains in 2008. We love spending time there with our goats, llamas, chickens, and dogs.



Rapid fire with Chani:

Start time during Balloon Fiesta: My day at Fiesta starts at 4 a.m. when I head to the Merchandise tents to get the navigators in and ready to sell merchandise. Once we close, we check inventory and restock each location. The afternoons are spent working on making any inventory changes unless there are 2 sessions for the day. Those days are spent taking a short break and doing it all over again at 3 p.m.!

Favorite spot on the field to watch the balloons: I very rarely am out and about, but if I can, I like to sneak over to the far north end of the field, especially on competition days!

Inside the Basket

We welcomed hundreds of thousands of guests to Balloon Fiesta Park last year, some who were event veterans and others who were visiting us for the first time. It’s our hope that, whether new or returning, every guest has a magical visit.



In this month’s Inside the Basket, we get to hear from first-time Balloon Fiesta guest Stacey Peterson sharing more about her experience, the memories that she made with her godmother and favorite tips for others planning to attend the 52nd Balloon Fiesta.

March in Ballooning

First Round-the-World Balloon Flight (March 1-21, 1999):

While not hot air ballooning, it's worth noting the Breitling Orbiter 3, a pressurized helium balloon, completed the first non-stop round-the-world balloon flight on March 21, 1999. Pilots Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones achieved this historic feat in just 20 days. Read more here.

Highest Altitude and largest envelope Record (March 4^th, 2011):

"A zero-pressure balloon manufactured by Raven Aerostar and flown by Cornell University graduate students, broke the world Amateur Radio High Altitude Ballooning record for highest altitude and largest balloon envelope. The balloon volume envelope of 141,000 cubic feet reached a maximum altitude of 135,030 feet. The flight was part of a graduate program in Systems Engineering at Cornell University.”

Read more here.

March Photo-of-the-Month

We have received some beautiful pictures of the 51^st event, submitted through the Cindy Petrehn Memorial Photo Contest! Below is the Mass Ascension Category Second Place Winner, Susan Coker.

Do you have a Balloon Fiesta photo of which you’re proud? Share your favorite Balloon Fiesta image on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, and tag our page for a chance to be featured in next month’s newsletter!

Read all about it

Check out the latest media coverage about Balloon Fiesta:

• Kuoni, a Switzerland-based travel company, highlights The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in The World’s Must-See Travel Experiences, according to Google Data.
• Santa Fe Reporter displays photo contest winners 2024 from across New Mexico – one winner features a photo taken at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Sponsor Spotlight

The City of Las Vegas, NM is a small municipality serving approximately 13,166 people in Northern New Mexico. The city’s primary role is to provide general local government services to the community in a sustainable manner. The city boasts over 900 historical buildings and features one of the highest ratios of historic locations to residents in the United States and is an ongoing movie set for the film industry. The 52^nd event marks another year for the City of Las Vegas, NM to be the Official Sponsor of the “Fiesta de Los Globitos”. Their decision to select the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is to support this highly attended event and to attract visitors to Las Vegas, NM. They feel the partnership is a benefit to both institutions for tourism. The City of Las Vegas, NM‘s favorite part of this event is to meet thousands of people from all over the world and have them learn about the culture and historical significance and see their interest in wanting to go visit Las Vegas, NM. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta event has brought much-needed attention to the City of Las Vegas, NM, and has created a great partnership between both cities, they look forward to remaining an active sponsor. We thank them for their support!

For a complete list of Balloon Fiesta sponsors, click here.