Balloon Fiesta; 61; Sid Cutter Interview

Oh, I've got it out for a reason, Amber, we need to put that carpet under a seat. Whatever, just so we don't hear a seat scratching on the carpet. All right, so what's the spirit behind the living? The spirit? We have a fist. Well, I just, I think it's just having fun and providing entertainment for people. What's the most fun about Fiesta? When are you really the most exciting? Well, you know, when I first started out, it was a challenge of getting from A to B. After a while after you didn't learn that, then the excitement is providing entertainment for all the spectators and things.

It's a lot of fun if you come up and get the keys, but it's a lot of fun to try to all the time. Yeah, let's just go to my questions if we're going to come back and hit somebody's points again. That's a great answer. What is it about believing that energizes people? Just this morning, I'd like some guys from the guys from England. What is it about? Well, Albert Kirkies kind of become the mecca ballooning around the world, and it was because of its early exposure to the international group. They've never had flying like this, where it's slow and, you know, and you can see them for 20 miles, and the camaraderie, all the people and stuff. I think that's what attracts them, and it appeals to all demographics, whether it's grandparents or the little toddlers. And we enjoy giving entertainment to other people.

And you kind of had to make me all the Kirkies and mecca. Well, I have an idea. We originally, the big radio station, 50th, I'm on a radio station here, was having a birthday party. And so they asked, they knew I had a balloon, I had one for about two weeks and stuff, so it was quite the topic of town. And asked if they could have an inflation at their birthday party, and they had it at a shopping center. They had slim pickens there, and the governor came in, and two backslapping fellows, you know, purple and with personality. And so I said, sure, I said, we can have an inflation. And I said, how about a balloon race? They said, what's a balloon race? I said, I don't know when I'll find out about it, you know? Because I didn't really know. And at that time, there was 19 balloons.

It was the largest gathering of balloons over in England. And so I got a hold of the Berlin Federation of Americans saying, hey, how do we have a balloon race? First of all, they said, well, you send a balloon out in advance and everybody chases. And that fit in pretty good with the Southwest, because they called it a hair and hand. So I changed the name of it to Kyle Roadrunner balloon race. And we'd send the roadrunner out in advance, and then the coyotes at Chase, and it kind of fit in with the Southwest theme. And then as far as it become an international mecha, the ballooning, it's the first year we had 21 balloons scheduled. But because we set it up in 10 days, and there was a snowstorm in Chicago on a freight screw up in LA. And so only 13 got here.

And so we had a little one day event, and only people advertised it was this radio station, KOB. And that morning we went out there at six in the morning. There was like 20,000 people there. And I've been kind of a chamber commerce type in those days. And I thought, gee whiz, this really appeals to people. I tried Mariachi Cookoff and Mariachi Bands and Tilly Cookoff and stuff, and this looked like it really fit the bill. So one of the contestants had just returned from France at the Federation Aeronautic International, which is the organization that covers all sporting events, aviation sporting events, and records. And he just got permission to host the first world championship in the United States. Well, we got to think about that.

And so we can do that. So our second race was 132 balloons instead of 13. And we had a illumination down for the second, third, and fourth, we invited four from every country. And so we had the illumination of the United States balloons down the second, third, and fourth. And we did have a national champion at that time. And so we put on the first world hot air balloon championship. That gave us exposure. And you asked, how did it become the mecca? Well, people found out about us, you know. And they had a great time. We ran it for a week and 10 days earlier. I want to go back to the first that you show up after it can't be advertised at 13 balloons. What? Just do your mind when you see that many people. Oh, well, I guess it caught me by as much surprise it did the Albuquerque Police Department because they sent one policeman on a horseback. And he just kind of gave up, stood around there.

One of the employees of the radio station, Tom Rutherford, which later became a state senator and stuff. I can't. He showed up with passes to get in amongst the balloons. Well, he showed up. There's 20,000 people here. You threw them in the back seat. Come on out. So everybody was having a great time, you know. And Slim Pickens and Governor King were slapping on another on the back and saying, I want a great deal as well as him. So we got in front and they shot off a gun. Of course, with the burners going on, we didn't hear the gun, but we took off. And I turned the guy next to me. I said, well, we finally saw a balloon race. And we had a good time. We flew north, which you almost never do. And it was in April, so the chance even getting a balloon race off in April, it's, you know, because of the winds.

But there was no winds that turned out as perfect. And the next day, all the contestants went out to Max Anderson's place and gave their crew rides. And so it was just a great thing. And we decided that we just try and keep it up, which I did for a little while. And you can't run it as a private enterprise, so I guess you couldn't now. But it takes about a thousand volunteers. And of course, if you're making money out of it, they think they ought to have some too. And so I was able to hang in there for about four more years. And then I got the city to take it over. And so they put it on. And I'm going to go back to Thursday again, so I'm just really curious, because you show up in the morning with its dark. First day, first, yes. No. When it was, of course, in April, you know, the sun comes up pretty early. Okay.

But it was early, like six in the morning, but it wasn't dark. I'm just trying to get the sense of what it must be like to drive up, expecting 20,000, and you drive up, and you're just coming. Oh, well, you mean once the first one was 20,000. That's the one that surprises so much. Now, we expected a lot of people after that, because people got on board, and more than just the radio station advertising, because it was a world championship. And the balloons would go off, and they'd land in schools, so they don't just shut it down. In this cool yard, they put out some ropes, and invite the kids out and give tether rides until they ran out of fuel, I think, because I was paying for the fuel, I guess. But so the whole city really thought it was a great thing since sliced bread. It kind of is. So that first thing I said, how many people did you expect? You mean the birthday party?

Well, I don't know. I've spent at least 3,400 to be there. And I was quite surprised when you couldn't find a place to park in the shopping center. I'd love to get into some more history. After the first thing you have, a few more pieces that you support yourself. Can I ask a question around you? Well, maybe we need to have a little bit of that set up. Okay. Because when you talk about a balloon race, I'm like, oh, what does that have to do with the fiesta? Okay. Well, because that was a start at first 13 balloons, because that was a start of ballooning in New Mexico. And like I said, we caught the coyote and road runner balloon race and stuff like that. So we decided that when it got big, we'd call it a balloon fiesta. Because we had a second here, had 132 balloons. And so it was more than just a gathering or a rally.

It was a fiesta. And we have yet to make again. And maybe talk about how the first one was a balloon gathering. And that was the in-watching springboard. What KOV wanted is an ascension of balloons. And I said, well, how about a balloon race? So they kind of got onto that because that put a little competition into the picture. And they launched their birthday party. And we had a marvelous flight in Northtown, nice and slow. Everybody saw it. People going nuts, driving and almost having accidents and things like that. And so it became decided that this was going to be an event for Albuquerque, like the chili cook-offs and the mariachi bands. And this one looked like it worked. And so we decided to make it more formal. And so we called it the Albuquerque International Coyote and Road Runner Balloon Fiesta. And I formed a balloon club to call the Albuquerque Aerostat Ascension Association.

I mean, we were just fooling around. We were having a good time. And it just took off. And so the Albuquerque International Coyote and Road Runner Balloon Fiesta became known as the Albuquerque Fiesta. And then after the fifth year, the city formed a corporation committee, so to speak, to take over the financial and the running of the Fiesta, which was great because I was a broke. And so that's how it just kept going from there. The Fiesta Committee has done a real great job in turning it into a world-class event. We get a million people out there over the nine days or ten days and concessions and everybody's having a great time. We gave them all a hotel and their travel expenses.

And some of them just couldn't make it at all because the weather in Chicago. And they said there were some guys show up, but their balloons didn't make it. So it's still got the exposure. So that was basically the start of the ballooning in Albuquerque because before that was just me and my balloon for about a year. And actually I bought mine for my mother for her birthday. And so we had that was in June and so it only June to the next April or so. I was the only balloon around. We're trying to teach ourselves how to fly it because nobody, we all had licenses because you used to show your flight physical and we were all aviation people. Sure, flight physical to the FAA and they just write you out of license for ballooning, hot air balloons only, which made a great conversation piece in the taverns.

And so then we proceeded to teach ourselves how to fly because there was nobody anywhere near us to do this. And we found that you don't fly in the middle of the day because of thermals and things like it. You flew and stable here. Yeah, well, yeah, let's pause for a second. But just give us, you know, the history lesson. Okay. Yep. Well, we tried to solicit a number of balloons to come to this birthday party for KOB and so I started calling that found out who the President of the Federation of America was which pretty small organization in 72. And so I finally got him and he gave me a list of some balloons and so I called them all. And I finally, for some reason they wanted 21 balloons, I guess it was a book out 21 balloons.

So they wanted to have the biggest balloon race in the world. I did. I got 21 balloon skid on these guys coming in. We told them we'd give them a motel room and pay their expenses to come in. And so the problem is that we only had 10 days to put this on for their birthday party and it was at a shopping center. And we didn't know how to put a balloon race on. I had to ask this President of BFA to how do you put a balloon race. I said, well, yes, simply send one balloon and advance and in the rest chasing. I called it a hair and hair eraser. So that being from Chamber of Commerce type guy, I decided it well, let's make it something southwest like the coyote road runner racing. So that stuck and so that's what we called it the Albuquerque International coyote runner road runner balloon racing a fiesta. So that's where we got it involved in calling it the fiesta.

And then one of the fellows that was at this was the President of the Blue Federation American. And he just returned from France from the Federation Aeronautic International, which was the aviation gurus where they controlled sporting events and records for aviation from airplanes to air cushion vehicles to everything. So they had just given him permission to host the first world hot air balloon championships in the United States and we did for it. And so we had that in 1973 and February 1973, which the reason we did that is because that was the lowest occupancy of hotels and February is pretty good weather. Whether it was off of cold, but that's great for ballooning. Later on we changed it to October because it's still good weather and not quite as cold when we get more people out and enjoy it and stuff.

So that's the way kind of that it came about. We had 13 balloons show up and it was just a one day event and it was such a success. And it started hitting the newspapers which didn't cover before. And now they're on board one. We found out we were having the world first hot air balloon championship. And so then we invited four from every nation that had balloons. Some of them could come up with four. You know, they just come up with one. And some of them could come up and he put any how we ended up with the 132 balloons. And the reason so many we had all of the balloons are basically in the United States. And if you did, I'm just going to stop getting a heavy repressant. You could say the second year we had. So I'm just going to get that quick bloodline from you and 72.

We had 13 balloons. Anytime. Okay. Yeah. And the the fiest have started in 72 with only 13 balloons. We have 13 balloons in Albuquerque. And that had such great exposure that the next time we had 132. And every year since then, it's been the largest balloon race in the world. And in the 19 there in 2000, we had 1000 balloons. Which you can't imagine what a mess that was. I guess you'd say is a mess. The weather wasn't all that great. But do you can imagine that 1000 balloons up in the air all the same time? But we decided that once you passed 20 balloons, they just cost more. You know, because you pour propane more hotels and stuff like that. And you have to do something for the balloon. It's because they're your show.

And so we decided to cut it back after that. And we were down around 750. And that's still the biggest show in the world. And it's a world class event. So that's kind of the progression of the yesterday. It started 200 and 300, pretty soon 1000. And it was kind of rewarding to know that he got it going like that. I didn't have the authority to do that at the time. That was done by the Fiesta Committee, the Blin Fiesta office. But they knew that I wanted to have 1000 balloons. And so they made it one time. So I don't think we want to ever do that again. But it was quite a milestone. And tell me about the hair and the hound or the coyote. So the race was actually the Fiesta.

And then the first race, we didn't know how to have a balloon race. So I asked a guy from the Federation of Blooms. How do you have a balloon race? He said, well, what you do is send one balloon out in advance. We call that hair balloon. And then we let the hounds chase it all others, chase it in the one that lands the closest to it. He was the winner. So there's been a lot of changes since then. But I got to thinking that it's not southwest enough for me, how's hair and hounds. Even though we have a lot of jack rabbits around and things like that. So I decided to call it the coyote and road runner balloon race. And that's what we did. We'd send the road runner out in advance. And then all the coyotes chasing it. And the ones that landed closest to it were the winners. And that's just stuck in there. They have that in almost any balloon event in the world now.

They don't all call it the coyote and road runner race. Because hair and hounds are first, but a lot of them do. And it's kind of stuck. And it's not copyrighted. So they can use it if they want to. And then since then, they've changed to a lot of other style events. They'll have a fly into the target and drop a marker. In the early days, you had the land. And your first touchdown or final resting place, whichever is further was your score. Well, I've got to where balloons are landed on balloons and stuff as they got better. And initially, if you landed in the same field, you were the winner. But now you drop your marker and you've got little markers. And 100 ounces, I think, something like that with a six-foot tail. So that it would hurt anybody if it hit them on the hand.

And where we had lands, they measured that marker, the closest part of the baggie to the target. And, but originally, you had to land. And that was quite a circus because people landed on people. You know, some of them were real competitors. You know, mostly ballooning is fun, but there's a few of us out there that are really competitors who don't want to say, well, I'm the best, Jenna. And I'm going to get to that. I love that aspect of the Fiesta. But just to get back into history before I forget it, if you could again say the first, just really simply, the first Fiesta was the Harrenhound. Or was the Road Runner and Coyote race. Just so we have a firm idea of what? Right. We found out how to have a balloon race. So we called the first balloon race we had, which was a one-day event. The coyote and road runner balloon race.

And, as a matter of fact, I even had a balloon made up that had the coyote and road runner on it. The characters, cartoon characters. And then it said the Albuquerque International Coyote and Road Runner balloon race around the bottom. It was a big balloon. It was a 105,000 cubic feet. And that became the official balloon for the second race. But our first race was only 13 balloons, a first event. And we called it a Fiesta. And the second was 132. And it just kept going up from there. Always over 100. And finally, in 2000, became 1,000 balloons in 2000. But we only did that once. It costs too much money, really. I said to you, the truth, that the whole sky is painted. It looks like gumdrops everywhere you look. Sure.

I just want to say. Speed. All right. Did I bring you ready? Yeah. Our first event was this meal with K.O.B. radio. We had this race, which is really an accuracy contest. And we called that the first Fiesta. Because we've been consistent every year, since then, the habit of loom deal. So that was the start of it all. So that's our first Fiesta. And we had 13 balloons in there. And then just got bigger the next year. Yeah, he said. I don't want to miss anything in the history. There's anything that you want to tell me about Fiesta. I'm 74 years old. I've been to 38 Fiesta's 21. No. I started a little late. So Fiesta is up and running.

It has the committee. It has the support. It needs. What do you think? Oh, come on. Hold on. It looks like I just want to get an idea of what. It takes so many people to get it going. What must it be like when you can look at it? That's what I started. Something. Well, but it's not all my doing. It took it for the first four or five years. It's your fault. Well, my fault, maybe. Let me know when you're ready. You can blame me. But you get a lot of people in Baltimore. And it takes a lot of people. And you get a lot of different ideas. Although we had the foundation, like our launch director had striped the suits on. Well, that's because I thought they were referees, you know. And so I couldn't afford to dress them all up in some special costumes. So I went out and bought referees, coats.

And they took it from there and now called zebra's, you know. And they go nuts with that thing. Well, that's great. You know, I think. And they're. They're going to have to put them apart. I'm sorry. Everybody start getting their own balloon. And I put that balloon club together. An Albuquerque year of standard center association. And so then they were all learning to fly in the club balloon. What happened? My brother took the balloon, the phoenix, teach himself how to fly in. So I had to have a balloon man. So I got another one. I made a club and got the people. But you guys together. Had to have a buy. Hold on just playing all the other ones. Go fishing. So they don't get involved in one another's flight. But in a balloon, you all you want to do is go ballooning. So they both want to go the same time. And the partnership doesn't work for anyone. Unless there's. There's been a lot for someone. So I'm going to get back into history.

So the evolution of the incident. Did you ever imagine it would get this big? Well, it was pretty big when I got it turned over to the balloon phoenix to committee. And they grew up to 140. And that's a lot for one person. I mean, me and the secretary and maybe a couple of other folks. So it was it was kind of nice to get it turned over to the phystic committee and then of course they got more volunteers that way too. And it takes a lot of volunteers. It takes well, like now it takes at least a thousand volunteers to run the balloon physter. But you know, it's a big event. Really nice when they got grass out there.

That made it really look like a world class event. Grass is a little hard to come by here in New Mexico. So it's just grown and it's grown healthy because the physter committee has got a lot of interesting folks on the board of directors and stuffs. They bring in a lot of ideas. And then the volunteers bringing a lot of ideas. And when you mull it all over and one of them, number of people, and you've got a little more budget to work with. And you can develop those ideas into something that's about here's a whole festival. What are some of those ideas? What kind of things have come out of that? Well, you know, the first of all, the traffic is good. They come up with the concession row, so to speak, where they just do it in a nicer, more organized manner. And they came up with the launch sites and the way it would mark on the launch sites with, you know, old tires.

And then they've got now, they've got little lights. And when they get there in the morning, it looks like a taxiway and look forward to it. I mean, there's these little blue lights everywhere that signifies what launch sites are on. And so those are some of the ideas. The propane is, of course, much better. They come up with a manifold system to provide propane to the ballooners at a faster rate so that they're not there all night trying to fill up from their balloon race that day. And so this works like clockwork. Security has been refined. The financial land has been refined. Or a lot of it comes back to the committee. Streamline. What about something like special shapes? How did those come to be? Well, special shapes turned out to be actually the first

championship we had a derigible looking shape. One of the old balloonist named George Stokes was there. And he had a gondola that looked like a gondola. You know, like a flag sagging off. Kind of like history, you know. So that was kind of the first few special shapes. And then what the first ones after that, that same guy made a whale. And he had a deep tried to fly and that didn't work very well because it was a long oil and stuff like that. And then they started getting into the character like Uncle Sam and Chicky Thumb, which was Carmen Miranda. And filled with the witch. And then they get into things like a flag, a statue delivery.

And all those things are really nice looking. But they, and if they're fat, like a coffee can, that flies pretty good. If they're long and slim, then they'll fly very well. But they still do. They have champagne bottles and beer bottles and cup and Pepsi cans and stuff like that. And some of them really get unusual on their special shapes. I got Darth Vader out there. I think he saw him out there this last year. And their ground crew are the stormtroopers. And I mean, people have ideas. And there, you know, one person can't have all those ideas. So that's the reason it's great. And it's the first time he saw a special shape at Fiesta. Well, the first time was at the 73 of the first one. But what was, sort of, feeling did you get to see?

Well, that's, well, that won't work. You know, it's all right for display. But I mean, you know, I'm into flying balloons. I have a good time all on people. And a lot of passenger stuff like that. But it has its place because, you know, like brand preference. When I was in the blue business exclusive, I mean, we had a number of special shapes and swatch watch. You know, it advertises their product, creates a brand preference. It's a great, great media, really. And you do that through exposure and it doesn't cost you as much as advertising, television, or newspapers, stuff like that. So it's, it's a good buy. And let's stop for a second. Speed. Ready? Okay, the, and we, and special shapes are great.

And actually, we had a special shape at our, our first world hunter championships are in Albuquerque, which is our second Fiesta. And it was a willingness named George Stokes who brought out an old time balloon, and looked kind of glimpse shape when he had a gondola that was like the gondola from Italy. And so he kind of takes you back. I think, well, what anybody wants something like that is great for show, but it wouldn't be a very good view of five balloons and like that. And then it, it just kind of caught on as some of the characters, you know, like, oh, Uncle Sam and some of those that started adding a little of paintages on them. Then some of them got real wild like the tractor, which is, was a full size time deer tractor. I think it was gotten deer or something like that,

but it was a big tractor. And while it was a real chore to fly, it took about, wait about 1200 pounds. It took about 15 people just, it was a big ground groove for it. It was attracting a lot of promotion. And it is like in the last Fiesta, with the Darth Vader balloon. It was really a ground pleaser. And of course, there are lots of mouth there now, you know. Bears, there's his butter, words, share stuff like that. And we actually flew him commercially for big beer bottle for La Batte beer, and a spot to watch, which had two faces of watching. It was slam, and they've got other things like the Statue of Liberty, the American flag, and, you know, Panda Bears, everything.

The gamuts there for whatever you want to spend the money on. They get in a little expensive, because they're pretty difficult to make, I guess, because of shapes and stuff. And how has it been walking it go from that first balloon that it was just a blend into what they are now? That's such huge. Well, and I, like I said, it started kind of a gradual where they had little appendages on it, which were little inflatable things that stick out like a nose or something like that. And then they just got more and more, and they got more creative, and pretty soon they had some real wild stuff out there. And as I said, the ones that are fat fly just about like a real balloon. You're hauling a little extra weight around, because as appendages are filled with air that they're not giving you any lift.

But then the long and slim ones, they don't fly very good. They go up and curves like that and stuff. And what about, we talked about when it first started as a specific event for the special shapes. You can see it one more time. Can you tell me about how the Vesta adopted had a specific event for the special shapes? Yeah, and that's one of those ideas that came out of the Board of Directors as one guy said, well, let's have a special shape roti that's nothing but special shapes. And that's where you can see that we have like 150 special time to forget how many. When I cut you there, I'm going through it. And it's higher than 10. Yeah, it's another one of those cases where the volunteers for the PSN and the people that are on the board have ideas that are adopted. And this one fell ahead and I do have an exclusive special shape because it is such a crowd pleaser.

And we've got like 150 in the special shapes. Maybe it's more now, I can't remember how the deals but they have strictly all the special shapes. And they have two events. One is they fly out so they can see them all fly. And then they have a special shape glow in the evening where people can walk out amongst the things and watch them glow and see the people that operate these things. So that's one of the ideas that is made at a better festival. And it's events like that that draw a lot of folks. That's one of the big draws of the PSN is a special shape rotiou that they call it. Another one is a gas race which is a gas race which is kind of uninteresting unless you really get into them because they inflate them and then they fly away in the night and as soon as they take off, they almost go out of sight.

But if you follow them on the internet and things like that, it gets pretty interesting because those are distance races and the person flies to the Atlantic Ocean. This is the winter. Very wet. Michael, do you want to ask about special shapes? Oh, sure. Why does a world according to CID? So from a pilot's point of view, why would a pilot choose to do a special shape? Why would he have a special shape? Why would a pilot choose to fly? Or have the expense to make one or whatever? Well, if you have the expense of making it, you're either well off of where you're working for a big corporation that wants a brand preference or it's kind of like the balloons in the Macy Day Parade, they create quite an interest. Well, in the hot air balloon, they actually fly away

and people get really interested in that. So from a pilot's standpoint, we all like to be heroes, and especially some of these balloons and say, there's exhibitionists and they want to be seen. And me, I'd like to win a balloon event. But they'd like to have people crowd around and say, we would not. Maybe it's just great. I think that's all part of the learning. It's one of the special ones. We did it, too, because we flew for Maxwell Coffee, a couple coffee cans and a beer bottle one for a little bit of ads and stuff like that. It was quite interesting, but something like flying a locomotive for Malcolm Forbes or Steve Forbes now. And it's just that they provide an entertainment and people look at it.

I don't think Forbes does it for every time. I think he just does it to put a little back in the community. He likes balloons or like to balloons. And I don't know what can you say about them. They're fun to fly because everybody's in awe about them. Some of them much more than others like that. And the McCall that was Forbes, a big guy at McCall. And he's got his castle in Balawak in the shape of the balloon. Huge balloons, waving 1200 pounds and stuff like that. Well, they're very interesting. They wouldn't make it very nice. Just go out and fly for fun. And another plane. And I'm going to use some rare plane now. Ever any time.

I want to get an idea of what it's like to be in spectator, looking at that. And what. So. Well, all I can say, you better come on out and look at them because they're first of all, they're so massive. They're huge. And they're a balloon. Everybody loves a balloon, except a couple of farmers. I know that. Well, like anything, they can't spend their eat. But everybody really likes a balloon. And they're colorful. Odd air balloons are much more colorful than gas balloons, as an example, because the fabric is right nylon. And then all different colors. And so I think that the reason is, and then, of course, a lot of the special shapes are animals or fantasy type things. That kind of stimulates your imagination there, I guess. And so people just love them. People love balloons.

And they look like a balloon when it's calm. It's like you just push it with your finger, and they just move right on off what they do. Of course, when it's windy, they don't do that. They run right over you. They're going in. But special shapes are in their world, and they're all in some of them are easy to fly. Some of them are more difficult to fly. So that would take, you know, 12, 15 people to handle, because they're so big and heavy. And others, they're just like a regular balloon. So... Couldn't you say that again, a special shape? Blue has been a world all its own. Did you say that? Said that in that. Said them somewhere that was going. I forgot what it was, isn't it? You said special shapes are in the world, all their own. And I like that. Oh. I want to make sure I get that. OK. Well, it comes to special shapes. They're in a world all their own.

And, you know, they're depicting characters, structures, things that really stimulate the imagination of people. And so people really enjoy watching them. Let's do that again, David. Just say they're in a world all their own and it's not there. All right. So special shapes are in a world all their own. Stop. Did you give it up the car? Perfect. Thank you. That's what you wanted. Thanks. Let's see. Sometimes it's easier to edit with shorter things, just having a variety is nothing. Sure. So thank you. I'm sorry. Sorry. We're close together. That's just when all the balloons go off or is that something

that the Esther has instated? No. That was designed just for spectator pleasure. And I did have to do an escorting and things like that. What happened? We have all the balloons that are at the event. Take off. Not at the exact same time, but as quick as you can safely handle them. I had to deal at maybe one of these days they'll do. That's where that thousand balloons came from. I was going to have them all lift off exactly at the same time, but have them spread out throughout the town. And so that would have been quite a sight. Let's see. We didn't get that part done, but we didn't get the thousand balloons. So the mass ascensions are what they do is just have them keep coming off. But thanks so that you end up with seven, eight hundred balloons in the air all the same time. And it takes about an hour and a half to launch seven, eight hundred balloons.

And so there's something going on all the time for the spectators. And you got to understand this, the balloons are enjoying this thing, but it's really for the spectators and it's a festival. He has to strictly for the tourists and the local folks that just enjoyable. And of course the pilots enjoy, too, and the crew and stuff like that. Let's try that again. I need mass ascension cleanly. Okay. We did an exercise without a question about them. Do you want to have them receive it or move to the next question? Well, yeah. I'm going to try that again. Just say, well, mass ascension really is not everybody's taking off at once, but we take off a ways to try to get them. Yeah. Can you explain how everyone's? Here, the mass ascension, that's just an event that we have at the F's to the air. We get all the balloons up in the air, not at the same time,

but all of them will be up in the air at the same time. And what they do is they start launching them as fast as they can safely launch them. And then the first one's launched or still flying around, or the second bunch comes up and we just work the field one way and then come back and work it the other way until we get all the balloons in the air at the same time. It's a spectator thing to paint the sky and see all the little gumdrops floating around up there. And it's good from riding in the balloon. It's good from the ground looking up to. It's just another visual experience that the festival Fiesta does for people. Describe to us in your own words what a mass ascension looks like. What do you think it looks like once all those balloons are? Well, the way I see it a lot of times, you know, balloons on television

after about five minutes, you're all hooked out of the fire and watching balloons. But when you're out there in real life, you watch them until the last balloon lands. And it's just that they hold your attention that much. And so when you have all the balloons up in the air at the same time, it's just like an all inspiring experience that the sky is just covered with balloons. You call them gumdrops in the sky. That's what I was hoping you'd say again for us. It just looks like a whole sky full of gumdrops. Yeah, they're all up at the same time. It looks like a sky full of gumdrops. And, you know, like one time I try to get them to use, let's paint the sky as one of their logos. I think they finally used it once. So in effect, that's what you're doing.

You're putting all these colors in the sky in various angles and shapes and stuff and densities. And it's really something to behold. I'll tell you. It wouldn't have become a part of... Hold on. Wait for me and... Okay. The mass essentials kind of need because you look up there and you see a whole sky full of gumdrops. And I guess maybe it makes me hungry. I couldn't shut it off there. Take three. Well, the mass essentials kind of need because all the balloons take off and you've got a sky full of gumdrops. Thank you. Moving on. Okay. It's my question is, when did it become a part of blue fiesta? When did it become another one of the events that blue fiesta just does? Well, the mass essentials were something to get it started.

We had the biggest crowds on the weekend, so we had a mass ascension there so that everybody could get exposed to all the spectators. I guess that's one of the reasons that. So it's probably the third fiesta and that became the modus operandi for the weekend. Now, we also have it now during the week one date also because it's a crowd pleaser and that's what it's for. Just to let everybody see all the balloons at once. What's your favorite event of fiesta? Your personal favorite? Well, I like the accuracy in contests. You know, we talk about races, but balloons are really go all go the same speed in the same air. But so it's really an accuracy task.

And one of the real cloud pleasers is coming in and trying to get the keys off a pole, keys to a new truck, or a motorcycle, or whatever. And or coming in and they got accuracy contests called golf where they've got flags set up on the field and you fly into the field. And you've got a couple markers and you try to put them as close to the pin as you could like you would in golf. And try to get a whole one. But they don't, they can't touch the ground because they got people all around. And so they have the same thing flying out, they fly out to target and put their markers in those. Those are the kind of events that I enjoy because it's a challenge to the pilot to get from A to B and to B always. It is a competitor, other competitor, so. So what from the biggest change at Blue Fiesta since it's inception?

Well, probably the grass is one of the biggest from the Blue Mist standpoint because, you know, before we just out on the macy and the dust and stuff. Or we had the field graded, but it's so nice to be on grass and it makes for a lot of picture taken and things. It's one of the other things that's so much about it is. I guess the size of the crowds is very rewarding to me in a half because this is a festival of Fiesta for the city of Albuquerque and for the tourists and things like that. And to see all those people enjoying what you enjoy, that's really rewarding, I'll tell you. I think that Blue Fiesta Committee had really done a marvelous job in capitalizing on that.

Hey, what do you think about all the pilots involved? How they help? Oh, hold on. Anytime. If you could tell me what it's like to see the people working. Well, that's one of the most rewarding things is all the people at the festival draws from the tourist standpoint to even the locals are out there in full force. It's just rewarding to see that many people interested in the things that you're interested in. They came out to see the sights and you're the sight, you know, I guess that's what, and it's grown over the years. And it's up to about a million people now throughout the nine-day pictures period. And that's good for Albuquerque, not only financially, but that keeps everybody a little lighthearted and stuff like that.

Right now, I'm going to have you walk me through the changes at Blue Fiesta Committee. This is just me doing housekeeping. If you could say we added special shapes, we added the dog patrol, just to kind of give the sense of how it's growing. What way is growing? Well, the festival is growing quite a bit and we've added special events to kind of keep the interest up, so to speak. And the folks who come up with these ideas and have really turned out to be a great show for the spectators and actually produce larger crowds. And we had before things like the special shapes that we have two days of that, one day they fly away and the other day they just exhibit for the crowd to walk through them and stuff like that. And things like the dog patrol, that's kind of an attraction for the people that hurry up and get to the field before all the balloons take off and they miss the same.

And plus they glow at night and stuff, and that's what's a different picture that you get. The gas balloon race, it's something that then draw huge crowds, but there's a lot of interest to the balloonists and the international community quite a bit. Look at a lot of internationally applied gas balloons. They just, all their new ideas and traffic flow and all that stuff has really made it a better festival. Yeah, they've added a number of answers to increasing the spectator appeal, they've added like the dog patrol at early morning flights. And then one of the things that people love to see and the glows of balloon glows at night where all the balloons are out there on the field glowing and turning it on to burners and off the burner and things like that.

And also the special shapes, both the fly away special shapes and then they have an eye to glow on to where the people can get out there and look at it. So all these little things have been added to the passenger to increase the scenic value of the thing, I guess is what you need to say, spectator appeal and. Yeah, it increases. Yeah, for instance, the special shaped rodeo increase increases the spectator crowds, which of course is financially but people at the estagone and all these events have increased. People coming in, that's one of the most, or people.

I didn't say that very good, but. It has increased the excitement, there really just talked about the fun of those events too. Yeah, some people just come for that one event and which is fine because we got enough people coming for the other plans events. So it's all right if you just want to see one thing, but I'd like to want them to see everything, but that's just me. I'm rubbing my hands again, I'm just a little bit. That's okay, I don't think of it, I guess, because I can't hear it. Well, most of the events at the Bloom Fiesta are not serious competition now, you know, when you come in and get keys to a $20 car, that's pretty serious, but. It's not the same as the events around the country over there, they're vying for title or something like that.

Sometimes the title is worth more than. And reward the money, but there's no, we don't have any championship. Of course, we have a champion of the festival because he did the best score, but it's not like national champion or world champion or something like that. We're not quite as serious. So they're not, some people aren't even trying to be in jam, they're just out having fun and they're given rise to their friends and acquaintances and stuff like that. And I think that's what it's all about, having a good time. Yeah, but it's coming so straight on now.

Well, the volunteers, they're not getting paid that it's just, and you know, you're getting up at at some ungodly hour, like four o'clock in the morning to come out, help with traffic or, you know, on your, your Zebra costume or whatever you do there. It, it's a lot of camaraderie enjoying being with other folks, they know it's the fact that they're crewing for a, a bonus and they're coming back and having a tailgate party afterwards and it's, it's the social aspect. A lot of them, they have meetings to see the problems and if there's been any problems, any safety or something like that.

We're back to doge again.