Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
DETAILS:
Location: Balloon Fiesta Park, Albuquerque, New Mexico
*** All INFORMATION BELOW BASED ON 2021 FIESTA***
Hours of Operation: The Fiesta is a 9 day festival held every October. Each day features a morning session (4:30AM to 12PM) and an evening session (3PM to approximately 9PM). Please see their website below (under “resources”) for details.
Parking: $20 paid parking lot available.
Cost:
General Admission: $15/session.
Park & Ride (must be purchased online in advance. Sales aren’t available at the park&ride locations): Adults: $22 / Seniors: $20 / Children: $10 / Children under 5 are free.
Gondola Club: $125/adult per session & $65/children per session (includes private seating area, bathrooms, preferred parking, food buffet, & alcoholic beverages - except Sundays due to New Mexico liquor law)
Chasers’ Club: $60 per session. (This is basically a parred down version of the Gondola Club)
Other pkgs are also available such as Glamping options and a Concierge Program. Please see their website below (under “resources”) for details and pricing.
Time Commitment: To truly experience the fiesta, you’ll want to attend both a morning session and an evening session on multiple days, if at all possible.
If there was ever a call to add an eighth wonder of the world, the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta would be at the top of the list. Starting in 1972 with a modest total of 13 balloons, the Fiesta was initially established to celebrate the founding of a local radio station (770KOB) and eventually grew to become the largest hot air balloon festival in the world. In fact, the number of hot air balloons increased so much (peaking with just over 1,000 balloons in 2000) that Fiesta officials began to limit the total to 600 balloons in 2009, favoring “quality over quantity” in addition to promoting safety protocols for pilots and visitors alike. I can’t even phantom what 1,000 hot air balloons in the air must’ve looked like because I’m here to tell you that witnessing half that total is one of the most breathtaking spectacles you’ll ever witness. And that’s probably an understatement. No matter how many times you pinch yourself while in attendance, the panoramic collage above you just doesn’t seem real. Part dream, part painting come to life, the whole extravaganza feels like a technicolor fairytale. I wish I had a better grasp of flowery vocabulary to do this event justice, but the truth is, no amount of words, pictures, or videos will ever accomplish that. The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta absolutely must be experienced in person to appreciate. So GO GO GO!
I could go on and on waxing poetic about the Fiesta, but I’m positive more eloquent people have done a better job of that so I’ll conclude by offering some advice, based on our experience, that will hopefully help plan your own trip to the Fiesta some day.
Plan ahead… far ahead. The Fiesta is the biggest event in the state, so people plan to go well in advance. That means all associated necessities (lodging, rental cars, airfare, various fiesta tickets, etc.) become more limited the longer you wait. And more expensive for what’s still available! Tickets go on sale in early July, but I would suggest securing your lodging (and airfare, if needed) even a few months prior to that.
If your budget and schedule allows, plan to attend multiple days. The Fiesta is massive, so you want to give yourself every opportunity to view all the various balloons from as many different vantage points as humanly possible. But on a more practical level, attending multiple days better ensures that you’ll witness the balloons actually in flight. While Octobers in New Mexico are supposed to be fairly calm, weather is ALWAYS unpredictable. If wind conditions rise above 10mph, the balloons won’t lift off due to safety concerns, and rightfully so. We learned this the hard way when two of the three days we attended were called off because of wind speeds. There’s plenty of other events, balloon demonstrations, and activities still available at the Fiesta that make it worthwhile even without watching a lift-off, but getting the chance to see balloons in flight is obviously the headliner of the entire event.
Use the Park & Ride service. People, this is the way to commute to the Fiesta!!! I’m not joking when I say that the entire school bus fleet in Albuquerque must be utilized in this endeavor. Located in 3 different pick-up areas around Albuquerque, we were pleasantly surprised at how smooth and organized the whole process was. The buses use a completely different route than personal cars are allowed to use, so you’ll be dropped off (and brought back later on) at the fiesta in approximately 15 minutes. This is a much quicker and stress-free experience than driving yourself where commute times can last as long as an hour (or more) no matter how close to the Fiesta your lodgings may be. Once again, we learned this the hard way when we decided to drive for one session. Our hotel was only 3 miles away from the entrance, but it took over an hour to reach. Also, as an added bonus, admission is included in the price of the Park & Ride ticket which means you’ll be saving money this way instead of buying admission and parking a la carte!
With the above in mind, I would suggest finding accommodations near a Park & Ride location instead of near the Fiesta itself.
You’re going to get up early, really early! Each morning session begins at 4:30AM, and while I don’t think you need to be there that early, I would definitely suggest arriving in time to watch the “Morning Glow” and “Dawn Patrol” which begins at 6AM. The “Morning Glow” features about a dozen balloons lighting up a pre-dawn sky as they blow “flames” into their respective balloons with their burner engines. It’s the same process that the balloons use during the day to inflate, but it’s much more visible and majestic in the dark. These balloons then lift off during “Dawn Patrol” to test wind conditions for the mass ascension that follows at 7AM. So you’ll want to plan your arrival time accordingly depending on your mode of transportation as detailed above.
Don’t miss a Special Shape Rodeo! Held on select sessions during the Fiesta, the Special Shape Rodeo features balloons of atypical design that cannot be missed! 600 “regular” balloons is already impressive enough, but imagine a sky filled with balloons shaped like Darth Vader, Yoda, Smokey Bear, dragons, unicorns, penguins, frogs, and so many other characters that you couldn’t conceive of as hot air balloons until they rise up into the air right in front of you!
Food/Shopping/Entertainment: If you’ve ever been to a state fair or similar, you pretty much get the gist of what you’ll find at the fiesta (and quality). One long row of various gift shops and food vendors borders the east side of the grounds. At the center of this row is a main stage for various local band performances. You’ll also find two large-screen TVs that broadcast the Fiesta’s “play-by-play” announcers who relay what’s happening during the session so that you’re always in the know. ATMs are available but most of the vendors accept credit cards.
We did opt to get the Gondola Club for one session. For our circumstances, it wasn’t worth the price. The food was average and dealing with traffic (as detailed earlier) was a huge negative and not worth the complimentary preferred parking. Free alcohol was nice, but how much can you drink at seven in the morning? And we realized in hindsight that the whole joy of experiencing the fiesta is walking around all the balloons. So having a private seating area is nice for a bit, but definitely not what I’d consider an absolute perk. (NOTE: you do have in & out privileges onto the balloon field with your Gondola Club purchase, however). The only advantage is that you’ll have access to nicer restrooms. They’re still trailer-style restrooms, but way nicer than the porto-potties that you’d have to use otherwise.
I do recommend attending a night session so that you can get the full Fiesta experience, but just know that these sessions aren’t as impressive as their daytime counterparts. This is mainly because the balloons don’t fly at night. Instead, similar to the “Morning Glow”, the balloons are inflated while on the ground and then “lit up” in intervals using their burners. The night session is augmented with two skydiving shows. The second show is conducted when it’s fully dark out and is actually pretty cool to witness since the skydivers wear neon-lit suits and literally launch pyrotechnics from their bodies as they plummet from the sky… which is something I can definitely say I’ve never seen before! The session concludes with a traditional firework show.
RESOURCES:
Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta website.
