World’s Largest Hot Air Balloon Gathering Takes Place In Chambley-Bussières, France

THE Chambley Planet’Air aerodrome in France is currently hosting the largest international gathering of hot air balloons in the world.

Nearly 700 pilots of 60 different nationalities are expected to attend the event over the 10 days. This 18th Grand Est Mondial Air Ballons event started on Friday, July 21, and runs until Sunday, July 30.

Located between Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle) and Metz (Moselle), the airfield stages this colourful extravaganza bi-annually, on odd-numbered years.

Pilots from Russia and Belarus will not take part

As well as the 700 balloon pilots, between 3,000 and 4,000 crew members will also take part. As Damien Petit, the manager of BallonVille Pilote explained: ‘It goes from Taiwan to Brazil, via Canada, South Africa or Mexico’.

However, there is one exception. ‘This year, there are no Russian and Belarusian pilots because of the conflict in Ukraine, because they are not allowed to fly in Europe’, the pilot manager added.

‘Hundreds of hot air balloons will take off twice a day, morning and evening, throughout the event’, explained Philippe Buron Pilâtre, who founded the Mondial Air Ballons event in 1989. ‘What I find wonderful is when 300, 400, or 500 balloons take off at the same time’, he added joyfully.

Around 500,000 visitors are expected

Around 500,000 visitors are expected over the ten days of the event said Pilâtre. In 2019 a world record was equalled when 456 hot air balloons took off at the same time from Chambley aerodrome, just as they had done previously in 2017.

The first mass flight of hot air balloons was delayed last night due to quite strong winds blowing in the Lorraine region but the event finally commenced at 8 pm.

At the end of this Mondial, Philippe Buron-Pilâtre, will hand over the reins. Recalling its creation, he detailed: ‘Our fathers had all done their military service. Whole carloads came on leave to Metz’, whose reputation was, according to him, tarnished by the walls of ‘black’ buildings, and by ‘blast furnaces’.

‘We had the idea of ​​doing this event which shows balloons in the sky, and in the blue sky’, the founder continued. Thankfully, the idea quickly caught on.

In this age of social networks, photographs showing these multicoloured balloons scattered in the sky attract visitors, even from afar. ‘It’s a bit like the whole planet comes to the region’, rejoiced Philippe Buron-Pilâtre, as reported by la-croix.com.