Hot Air Balloon Glow Last Night -VIDEO
 

Was there last night. We enjoyed it, and can see this becoming an annual event. They do need to have a longer period of the balloons glowing at night.

The Villages Hot Air Balloons - YouTube

In the area where my husband and I lived when we first got married, little did we know that there was a hot air balloon landing site very near to our home. One Saturday morning when we were still in bed, we heard this weird noise and then all of a sudden it appeared to get cloudy outside as the natural light in our bedroom dimmed. Imagine our surprise as we peered out the window to see what was going on and all you could see was this huge colorful balloon floating very near to our house. We got used to it in time and enjoyed seeing them float in over the years we were there, but that first time was a real shocker!

Never saw the glowing ones at night that you speak of. That would be awesome to see!

They were not glowing very long last night. This was a first time event. So, of they had problems they will get it worked out. Will probably be more crowded tonight.

I am happy to see them start this and hope that it will grow in the future. We went one year to the Balloon Fiesta in Albuquerque and it was amazing. There were thousands of balloons and they were in every shape and size and color. The sky was just filled with them.

I am sure after all the complaints that were on Facebook about last night the promoter will probably do things a little differently tonight.

They make money taking people up, not by letting them glow at the same time. That is what happened last night. They didn't have enough gas for a full glow per the owner of the event.

it reached capacity tonite ( sat) and the promoter indicated that Sunday will be free admission... Facebook posts said there was lines around the block for the restrooms and the vendors ran out of food.. tomorrow should be even more interesting..

Don't know about the food, but there were only 5 bathrooms for all (the Polo Club facilities were not available). Hard to believe that a Villages function would be that short of bathrooms.

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We had to leave at 8 PM, and it took 45 minutes to get out at that time, and people were still coming in! The balloons were just starting to get filled, so we saw a few as we got to Buena Vista, had to go North and turn around, left turn was impossible due to limited visibility due to backed up traffic still trying to get in! I will cut TV a break as this was the first time for this event, but there were many short comings that will need to be addressed.

We went to the event tonight....we arrived around 6ish...no problem getting in...went to get food....2 hour wait for food....many vendors ran out of food...went back to cart watched the balloons fill with gas...they periodically were bright but not in unison and for a short period of time....then the promoter counted down around 8:40 or so and all the balloons were glowing for a very very short time in unison. We thought the glow would have gone on longer. People started leaving immediately. We were disappointed in the "glowing" part. The event needs tweaking for sure.

Sounds like it was fun.

It was fun but like any first time event has a few kinks to work out. I think they must have underestimated how many people would attend.

Kind of like The Villages version of Woodstock. People were parking cars along Buena Vista and walking in. I would guess a 100 carts parked in the grass between the MMP and BV.

:coolsmiley:

Loved it. Spent 1 1/2 hr on line, but got the ride a little after 9:00