2005 Bristol Balloon Fiesta Review

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2005 - Review

Title sponsors for the 2005 Bristol Balloon Fiesta were Discovery Channel; a contract that continued for four years. G-BWUU, a Cameron N-90 built in 1996, was used as a sponsor balloon for the company and operated by Bailey Balloons. Bass Beer had a brand new balloon built especially for the fiesta after winning sponsorship for a night glow. Also flown by Bailey Balloons, this Z-120, which is slightly larger than the standard ‘105’ size, is technically a special shape with three add-ons, registered G-CDLB.

Press Launch

Held at Queen Square, it was a very busy morning at the press launch. Perfect blue skies and calm winds meant conditions were perfect. Balloons at the launch included DS Smith Packaging, Fishtank, Chubb, Churchill, Roundtrees Cameron Balloons and David Hathaway. The Roman Baths team had some trouble and realised they had a rip in the balloon, so had to be pulled down. Notice that G-CDIT owned by Bailey Balloons, seen here, is sponsoring EDF Energy. This was before the company decided to get a second balloon made for them, consisting of different colours, in 2006. G-CDIT was also used for Harvey Nichols’ sponsorship four years later at the fiesta, but the letter ‘e’ could still be seen on the parachute.

The special shapes launch was cancelled, so there was a tether in the arena with the Monster G-MSTR operated by the Airship & Balloon Company, IKEA G-IKEA operated by Phoenix Balloons, the Chubb fire extinguisher G-BZJA, Flying Enterprises' Stowells Wine Box G-STOW, G-BZVE and the Discovery Channel. So even though it wasn't flyable, the crowd still saw 4 classic shapes tether.

Thursday Special Shape Rodeo

Unfortunately, the Thursday evening launch was cancelled. Some tethering took place though, with IKEA returning for a second year after being title sponsors in 2004. The Chubb fire extinguisher also inflated alongside the Airship & Balloon Company’s (ABC) Monster and Flying Enterprises’ Stowells wine box. Chubb, registered G-BZJA, is the third of three fire extinguisher shapes to be built by Cameron Balloons, completed in 2000. G-CHUB was 1990 and G-BVYJ in 1995. G-BZVE and Discovery Channel entertained the crowds too, until it was time for the night glow.

Thursday Night Glow

Discovery Channel took centre stage at the first night glow of 2005 with all other envelopes surrounding, around the outside of the arena. Balloons such as Sloggi, British Airways, Kubicek demo, BT, Nokia and BWS took part.

Friday Morning

The first mass ascent of the 2005 fiesta was due to take place, as always, at 6am. Conditions were good and the flight was confirmed. A small number of special shapes flew including Churchill, the Monster, IKEA, Chubb and Bass Beer. The French Cockerel made its first ever Bristol appearance at this ascent too, and would attend until 2014, missing only 2007 and 2012. Registered as F-GOCO, it was built the same year by Cameron’s. This was a great way to start the fiesta, on the big press morning too, with some iconic shapes.

Friday Evening

The good weather continued into the evening and allowed another ascent to get the green light from the flying committee. It was all systems go at Ashton Court! Around 100 balloons took to the skies with the same special shapes as the morning plus some others not yet seen in 2005. The team from the Czech Republic returned to Bristol once more with their Budvar beer glass special shape built by Kubicek Balloons.

OK-9050 is the oldest of two identical envelopes, with its maiden flight having taken place from Brno in 1999. G-CCYP, which is the 1981 Colt-built Burger special shape, took to the skies towards the end of the launch too, after tethering twice in 2004. The Festo airship circled Ashton Court; and of course, Festo have the well-known upside-down balloons, which were right here in Bristol 6 years before this.

Saturday Morning

Lots of people had made their way up to the launch site to hopefully witness the first weekend mass take off. Luckily they were not disappointed! Although a little gloomy, a good number of balloons took off with the westerly direction taking them straight across the city. IKEA, the Cockerel and Bass Beer were the shapes to fly.

Saturday Night Glow

After that the weather did take a turn for the worse, therefore the planned 6pm ascent was called off. Hopes remained high that the winds would stay calm enough to go ahead with the normal night glow, despite the patchy rain forecast. The Bass Beer round balloon tethered in the centre of the arena with others taking part in the damp conditions including EDF Energy, Nokia, both G-SBIZ and G-KAYI, David Hathaway, Churchill and Fairy.

Sunday Morning

The bad weather continued and meant there was no hope of the morning ascent going ahead on Sunday. However, things were looking up (literally) for the evening with light winds forecast, perhaps allowing some big special shapes to fly.

Sunday Evening

The planned final ascent of 2005 was confirmed in the briefing and it was a good one! Title sponsors, Discovery Channel, were first to become airborne piloted by Clive Bailey, but something was a little different. A mini chopper bike was attached to the basket with Ian Ashpole on the bike flying through mid-air. He then skydived down and Clive landed with the bike underneath the balloon. But this wasn’t the first publicity stunt to happen at the 2005 fiesta, oh no. The other involved Bristol rugby captain Matt Salter setting the record for highest pint pulled in a hot air balloon, climbing to 3000ft in, quite fittingly, the Bass Beer balloon.

Closely following G-BWUU was A-GAS, Robert Price, HB-QET, Edward Ware Homes, Triumph, the IKEA special shape, Blue Peter and many more.

Bailey Balloons, Visit Bristol, Cameron Balloons and G-BTRN were the final round balloons to take off. But that wasn’t the end quite yet! ABC were getting their Churchill dog balloon ready to inflate, which was only built in 2003, and at the other end of the arena the famous Piper was inflating. After a little time, they were both fully inflated. The Piper was built in 1997 and had travelled all around the world attending international festivals. He took off and flew low over the crowd, leaving Churchill looking on as people began to pack up their things and leave.

Thank you to Phil’s Balloons and James McDonald for providing photos.

Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2005 - Review

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