The International Hot Air Balloon Festival (FIBAQ), marking its 28th edition this year, is organized by the company Publibalão, in collaboration with the Alentejo Sem Fronteiras Ballooning Club, the organization announced in a statement.
In a conversation with the Lusa agency, Aníbal Soares from the organization explained that this year’s edition includes flights over the municipalities of Ponte de Sor, Avis, Alter, Monforte, and Fronteira, in the Portalegre district.
“We organize this festival in the region (Portalegre) also because of the St. Martin’s summer, the fields themselves, and the location where we are. When we started ballooning, there was also support from the local authorities that remain with us, and I think we have to promote this area, which has very good characteristics also at a technical level,” he stated.
This year’s event is expected to feature “31 to 35 teams,” according to Aníbal Soares, coming from Portugal, Spain, France, the Netherlands, and Belgium.
FIBAQ will visit Ponte de Sor on November 8, followed by Montargil, also in the same municipality (on the 9th), Benavila in the Avis municipality (morning flight on the 10th), and in the afternoon in Fronteira.
The festival will then continue to Alter do Chão (on the 11th) and Monforte (on the 12th), concluding the following day in Fronteira.
Besides flight baptisms, FIBAQ annually features a nighttime spectacle of light, color, and sound called “Night Glow,” where the “flames from the hot air balloons’ burners are released to the rhythm of the music,” taking place in Ponte de Sor.
The hot air balloon flights are planned to occur almost always twice a day, at 07:00 or 07:30 and at 14:00 or 14:30, whenever weather conditions allow.
According to the promoters, those interested in flying in a hot air balloon should purchase solidarity wristbands and tethered flight tickets, with the proceeds going to local institutions and associations as well as to volunteer fire departments in the participating locations.
According to the organization, the solidarity wristbands are priced at 99 euros per person on weekends and 75 euros during the week.
“The baptismal tethered flights will have a symbolic price of 7 euros per person,” they add.
The festival held its first edition in 1997 and laid the foundation for the opening in 2012 of the country’s first hot air balloon pilot school, in Fronteira.
