20,000 visit hot air balloon fiesta

An estimated crowd of 5,000 people attended the spectacular 'night glow' event at Trim's Porchfields on Saturday, which was the undoubted highlight of the Easter Trim Balloon Fiesta. Poor weather conditions meant that no balloons got to fly over the weekend but organisers ensured there were plenty of activities both on and off the ground to keep the crowds entertained over the course of the three-day festival. Organiser Pauline Baker said the feedback from the 'night glow' was incredible and, although it was windy, they managed to inflate three balloons and also had nine other balloon burners taking part where all the burners were synchronised to music. A conductor conducted the balloonists via radio and there was strobe lighting and smoke to give effects to the balloons. There were also fire jugglers, fire-eaters, and 'Glowbot' stilt walkers with LED lights. The evening came to a close with a spectacular 15-minute fireworks display. Crowds of up to 20,000 attended the balloon festival over the course of the three days with the largest crowds attending on Saturday and Sunday. There were skydiving displays on each of the three days as well as aerobatic displays on Saturday and Sunday. On Sunday, one of the Coast Guard's Sikorsky air sea rescue helicopters put on a display the paramotorists also did displays over the weekend. Ms Baker said the Newgrange Falconry display was fantastic with lots of interaction with the crowd. The Cadburys Easter Egg Hunt on Sunday was a great success and the children's marquee was hugely popular, too. The poor weather meant that the planned balloon ascensions each morning and evening had to be cancelled and it also made the static display in the arena difficult. Ms Baker explained that no balloon flights had taken place anywhere in Ireland over the weekend because of the weather. "All the pilots were disappointed that they didn't manage to fly. We had pilots from Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Holland, Germany and the UK but they remained on the field and any time they got an opportunity, they got their balloons out," she said. The wind also affected the static displays but Ms Baker sid that whenever they could, they inflated the balloons in the arena. She said the Darth Vader balloon was up on Saturday but the wind started to gust and they were forced to take it down. The first Trim Balloon Fiesta took place at Easter two years ago and was also hampered by poor weather. However, Ms Baker said they had done passenger flights all over Easter weekend last year and said it is impossible to predict the weather. Even if the event was moved to the summer, Ms Baker said there are also bad weekends then too. The festival provided a great boost for the town and Patrick Curran, manager of the nearby Knightsbrook Hotel, said their bookings were up 30 per cent on last year because of the balloon fiesta and their food business was up by 40 per cent. "There was a great buzz in the town. It also kept locals around with their being something on," he added.