Bristol International Balloon Fiesta 2022 - Review

After 3 years away due to the pandemic, the Bristol Balloon Fiesta returned to Ashton Court from Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th August for 4 days of mass launches, night glows and tethering. Read below for a summary of the ballooning side of the 2022 event from our perspective. 

We’ve always loved the fiesta here at MJ Ballooning, attending every year from a young age, and is without doubt the highlight of the year for us. The last fiesta to happen in 2019 was a very challenging one, battered with rain and strong winds, so we were all hoping for a different story this time around. We were due some good weather, weren’t we?

Since 2019 ballooning had also dramatically changed for us: gaining 6 hot air balloons including 5 special shapes in quite a short space of time. Applications opened to balloonists in the spring; our team decided we really wanted to support the return of the fiesta this year, so entered 4 special shapes. These were Joycam Lips to fly, plus Choc Dips, the Orange, and Slick the Dragon to tether. 

Costa Coffee supported the event once again after the 2021 Fiesta Fortnight success, ensuring pilots and crew were fueled and ready ahead of the flights! 2022 charity partners were announced as Teenage Cancer Trust and Great Western Air Ambulance.

Press and Community Launch

Community launches, where pilots flew from different areas around the city, in 2021 proved to be extremely popular, so much so that organisers decided to split the press launch between multiple launch sites. Mixing it up like this is also nice for people in Bristol who can’t easily get up to Ashton Court, so the balloons come to them instead!

The fiesta was less than 2 weeks away and the countdown was well and truly on. Pilots were told the press launch would be confirmed for one morning from 1st to 5th August, which ended up being the first opportunity on Monday 1st. 

It was announced on social media the night before that Fishponds and Emersons Green would be the lucky communities to have balloons fill the skies above them. Many set their alarms bright and early in the hope of catching a glimpse of the balloons. A light north easterly wind was forecast with overcast cloud, which would allow for a nice flight down to Keynsham and Hengrove. 

Vassells Park in Fishponds had 15 balloon teams in attendance and Pomphrey Hill in Emersons Green had 12 teams. Most were the usual local balloons you’d expect to see, but they did include Bailey Balloons’ new Huboo Z-105 G-HUBO, sponsoring the new Sky Lounge in 2022, and Paul Smith Signature Stripe G-PSLT operated by Flying Enterprises. Pattertons also returned alongside G-CHXS with new sponsor Creative Construction. Bath Gin, ETS Group, Gloucestershire Cricket and Able Scaffolding also made their first fiesta appearances.

It was a successful ascent which achieved a lot of press coverage. Costa Coffee also kindly supplied free drinks and snacks. 

As the days went by and the fiesta got ever closer you couldn’t help but look at the forecast, although you shouldn’t so far out as it can change at any minute. 10 days to go it was showing a second extreme heatwave for the UK with temperatures reaching the mid 30°Cs. After some fluctuations, it became apparent with a few days to go and during setup at Ashton Court that we were in for a boiling hot weekend and the early predictions were correct. Winds were looking light and very promising. 

Teamed up with Bristol Balloon Collectors, we were all set the evening before with 7 envelopes ready in the van (5 shapes including beer bottle G-BIRE, plus Bristol balloons G-BUVW and G-CBHW). Chief pilot Bradley and crew were looking forward to a very busy, very hot 4 days ahead.

Thursday Morning Tether

So, the big day had arrived. Instead of beginning with tethering at midday like our team expected, instead it started with a 4:30am alarm and a meeting time of 5:15am at the fiesta field. Yes, we must be crazy! ITV’s breakfast show Good Morning Britain were filming the weather with presenter Laura Tobin live from the site. 

The committee had invited us along with one of our special shape balloons. As winds were very calm first thing in the morning we decided on the orange, which was built by Cameron Balloons all the way back in 1993. It must be calm for this one as due to the flat side it likes to spin, and it took us a little longer to set up because of the rip locks and Velcro’s. We tethered for 1hr 20 alongside 7 other round balloons before winds picked up and got too strong for us.

Thursday Afternoon Tether

The event officially opened at midday on Thursday 11th. By this stage an extreme heat warning had been issued by the Met Office for all 4 days of the fiesta, which meant inflating with scoops attached to reduce fire risk. 

​Our team met on the field at 11:45am ready to tether for ITV and BBC Points West with Slick the Dragon, manufactured by Lindstrand in 2010 and a firm favourite in Bristol, returning after 7 years away from the fiesta. There was a slight breeze, but the balloon handled well being box shaped. Alongside us were ETS Group, SM Gauge and Airship & Balloon Company with G-CIXU. Unfortunately, the dragon side was facing away from most of the crowd due to the easterly winds!

Once we had Slick packed up and ready to pack into the bag, our crew member asked where his phone had disappeared to. Yep, you guessed it, it had fallen into the minefield of fabric! Luckily after searching for an hour, we finally found it. It was only 32°C at this point!

ETS Group pilot, Steve, offered to inflate our Choc Dips special shape next. After speaking to so many people during this year’s fiesta, this one is definitely the most loved of all our shapes. It attended the year it was built in 1988, then 89, 90 and returned in 2012. Although it’s now too old to fly, we always love inflating G-DIPI for the public. It had a quick 10 minute stand up before being pulled down as the gusts were getting a bit strong. But not bad going; 3 of the shapes had already been inflated!

Thursday Evening Tether

Unfortunately, as a result of the high temperatures the Thursday evening launch was cancelled but teams were encouraged to tether. Hot air rises in cold air, so the air on the outside of the balloon must be cooler than inside otherwise the balloon will have difficulty lifting off the ground, gas consumption will be very high, or you must lose some weight from the basket, i.e., fly with fewer passengers. Thermals up to 8,000ft were also causing issues. All this combined meant it was not safe to fly. 

This slot was no longer called the special shapes rodeo, in 2022 organisers dedicated the first evening to hot air ballooning legend Phil Dunnington who sadly passed away last year. Pilots were determined to put on a show despite flying being called off.

Sponsor balloons Thatchers and Huboo tethered near the Sky Lounge area alongside ETS Group, B&A Group, the Panther, Busby the Queen’s Guard, SM Gauge and ORB. Meanwhile we were busy with Slick the Dragon, which we wanted to inflate as a tribute to Phil. Him, Allie and Nick owned the balloon before we purchased it. Our team were so glad we could do this tonight. 

Meanwhile, fiesta founder Don Cameron tethered his Cameron Sport-50 followed by G-AZIP, the first balloon registered in Phil’s name built in 1971. 

Pilot Matt inflated his new J&B rare bottle special shape next to us for its annual inspection. Take a closer look at the artwork - it’s hand painted before the days of digital printing, and you can even see the brush marks. Incredible! Built by Lindstrand in 1997 and under 50 hours in the logbook. The earlier 2 J&B shapes (G-JANB and G-RARE) have appeared at Bristol but for G-OJBW this was its first ever inflation at the fiesta. This one also has a rip panel like our orange and when you pull the red line, there’s no going back! 

​Balloons were packed away ready for the first night glow of 2022. 

Thursday Night Glow

We didn’t take part in the glow so watched from outside of the arena. It was such a feel-good night with an amazing atmosphere. BBC Radio Bristol created the soundtrack, which would take everyone on “an imaginary balloon flight over Bristol”. Although we’ve never been a massive fan of night glows, this was by far the best we’d ever seen for the atmosphere, soundtrack, and sharp timing of burning by the pilots. 

Now time for sleep - another busy day coming up on Friday!

Friday Morning Launch

Conditions were looking good for the first mass ascent of the 2022 Bristol Balloon Fiesta on Friday morning. Briefing was at 6am. Easterly winds would take the balloons towards Nailsea and Failand, and although calm on the surface there was speed of 10-15kts at 500ft and above.

63 balloons took to the skies with our Joycam Lips balloon taking centre stage for its fiesta debut 22 years after being built and the only special shape at the launch. We flew for 20 minutes landing at North Somerset Showground. 

Add-on shapes that flew included Dolly the Sheep, UP and Wes the Wolf. Bristol Bear’s new shirt was also unveiled with a giant replica hanging from the Huboo basket on take off!

Miles Architectural, Belmont Estate and new Diamond Balloons 105 Chameleon Spray / Perfect Paint remained tethered in the arena for the packed crowd who braved the early wake up call.

Friday Lunchtime Tether

After we packed Lips up from a lovely morning flight and had breakfast, we were ready to go again and tether some shapes with pilot Ben. Running on little sleep and working in extreme heat, we soldiered on. 

Bristol Balloon Collectors’ Satzenbrau Pils bottle, one of the earliest shapes built, was inflated followed by Choc Dips and G-BMHJ. 

Friday Evening Tether

Sadly, the conditions were again too hot to fly, like Thursday but this time with a bad direction towards Avonmouth and the Severn. Not flying weather. 

Thatchers, Huboo, ORB, Band of Builders, Busby, Buster and L'Occitane G-CKTV operated by Exclusive Ballooning were inflated and displayed for the crowds. 

The leader has landed… Brand new alien special shape G-OMIB built by new UK manufacturer Diamond Balloons was publicly unveiled for the first time by owner Lee Hooper. It’s a very light shape holding just 48,000 cubic feet with no internal baffles making it extremely hassle-free to pack away.

As mentioned above our team were attending the 2022 fiesta with 4 special shapes - Joycam Lips, Orange, Choc Dips and Slick the Dragon. All had been inflated separately so far at least once, but could we get them all stood up together? Realistically, no, probably not, but we made it known to the flying committee ahead of the briefing that we were looking for help inflating some shapes. 

Amazingly pilots Rob and Derek spoke to us straight after and said they’re available to help. We already had pilots Bradley and Ben lined up. BINGO, we had 4 baskets. Now just to arrange the tether vehicles!

After a pretty stressful hour organising vehicles, tether lines and rigging the 4 huge shapes we were ready for fans on. Lips and Choc Dips, our original 2 special shapes from 2021, were first up, shortly followed by Slick and the Orange. We did it. We can’t thank everyone enough for making it possible!

And yes, we were on the field until after dark packing everything up! 

Saturday Morning Launch

Perfect blue skies and light winds greeted us on the launch field on Saturday at 6am with the forecast almost a carbon copy from 24 hours previously. Our team were out with the Lips shape and again flew 20 minutes to the showground. Lots of left on the surface as we dropped down to get into there. See our YouTube video of the flight and us coming into land flying very low over the road with the cars stopped… only in Bristol can a giant flying smile stop traffic!

Wes the Wolf, UP, Dolly the Sheep and Busby also flew. We were too exhausted to tether after the launch but were back on the field at 6pm!

Saturday Evening Tether

Saturday ended up being the warmest day peaking at around 35°C. It was a little breezy during the afternoon caused by the heat, but this soon dropped out to allow us to tether later on. 

​Alongside the original Bristol Balloon Fiesta envelope G-BUVW we stood Choc Dips up for 20 minutes, which people loved to see. At the opposite end of the arena was Huboo, Thatchers, Teenage Cancer Trust, Buster, Hopdeals, Bath Gin, ETS Group and B&A Group. 1977 G-BUSY, Thunder AX6-56A, was also inflated as the glow teams were driving onto the field.

Saturday Night Glow

The second night glow was another huge success. New alien special shape took centre stage in the middle of the arena between the 2 lines of balloons, inflating halfway through. It was also absolutely rammed, the busiest we can remember it ever being at the fiesta. 

Sunday Morning Launch

Sunday morning was probably the highlight of the event (behind our Friday shapes tether, of course) with 80 balloons launching. Winds were slower which allowed for some spectacular photos as balloons hovered in the sky. 

Our Lips special shape took to the skies for what would be the final time at this year’s fiesta. And guess where we landed? North Somerset Showground… déjà vu? 

Sunday Morning Tether

New add-on shape Daisy the Cow G-CMOO hopped around the arena while tethered after the morning mass ascent. This balloon only holds 31,000 cubic feet and is flown solo with a chair instead of the conventional wicker basket. 

The final balloon to be inflated at the 2022 fiesta, quite fittingly, was 2002 Bristol balloon 105 G-CBHW featuring the famous Clifton Suspension Bridge and Concorde.

Sunday Evening

Winds were too strong and temperatures too high to fly on Sunday night. 

The 2022 Bristol Balloon Fiesta was a great success - 3 morning mass ascents, 2 night glows and plenty of tethering. It will go down in history as one of the hottest fiestas on record. In total our MJ Ballooning team managed 13 special shape inflations including 3 flights in G-LIPS: its debut year at the fiesta. 

We also covered the ballooning side of the event in full on social media, reaching over 50,000 people just on Facebook alone. I was also delighted to be speak live on BBC Radio Bristol on Friday about the fiesta and our special shapes collection.

Photo credits:
- Ballooning Pictures UK: Sat AM airborne, Sat AM landing, G-OMIB
- Able Scaffolding Balloon Team: Pomphrey Hill x2
- Allie Dunnington: G-DIPI, G-PNAD, G-LIPS Friday PM