The annual Balloons Over Waikato festival was held 26-30 March 2014 with around 30 balloons participating in a mass ascension, a basket burn, a night glow and a cash grab competition. Shown below are a handful of images captured throughout the festival.
Friday night was the 'Basket Burn' in Garden Place, a neat visual display with one balloon and six burners to showcase the flame height to music. A great display.
Saturday night was the Night Glow display. A flaring of balloons to music with a fireworks spectacle to finish, all choreographed to music - one of the best fireworks displays I've been to.
There were over 80,000 people present, the largest Balloons Over Waikato to date. The University grounds were PACKED!
Once the fireworks started, the balloons were pretty quick to deflate and be packed away, understandably.
This blog website compresses the images and particularly low light images bear the brunt of this loss in compression - such a shame as the originals dont look this 'blown out'.
My personal favourite:
The following morning was a mass ascension, a display of all 30+ balloons from the festival.
Amy holding the show up!
This balloon was ascending FAST!
Rocket man
To Christchurch, From Hamilton.
