​Well everyone, it’s that time of year again. Bristol and Bath’s hot air ballooning season for 2019 winds down tomorrow on October 31st. It’s been our busiest year ever, we’ve loved it and we hope you’ve enjoyed our coverage of the season, plus the Midlands Air Festival and Sky Safari. Let’s take a look at some of this season’s best bits...

​We attended the 2019 Sky Safari last weekend, which took place from Thursday 12th to Sunday 15th at the beautiful grounds of Longleat, Warminster. Organised by Ariel marketing specialists Exclusive Ballooning, the event saw almost perfect flying conditions which allowed 6 out of 7 mass ascents to go ahead.

​Babybel Mr Cool should have been a cow. Well that’s how the concept started out as we contacted their UK office in Kent and proposed that we build a giant red smiling cow balloon to promote their famous ‘Laughing Cow’ brand.

​As you can probably tell, here at MJ Ballooning we are a big fan of special shape hot air balloons. Hundreds of weird and spectacular special shapes have appeared at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta since the 1980s. In a previous blog, we looked at the most loved and popular to come to Bristol, but what about the forgotten special shapes?

To any boy born in the late 1950s or early 1960s, there was only one toy that was the grail of desire: Action Man! Read how one of the UK's most loved special shape hot air balloons came to life, written by ex VABC Creative Director Mark Lockwood.

If you’re a fan of the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, you’ll know how many hundreds of special shapes have graced the skies above Ashton Court; Fire extinguishers to Liquorice allsorts men – we’ve had it all! But which are the best?

On the 7th July we made our way to Ashton Court for some evening hot air ballooning action. Winds were light in a westerly direction but with enough wind to safely get across the city. It was a Sunday so we were expecting a lot of balloon teams to turn up and heard of one pilot travelling to Bristol from outside our region to hopefully fly as part of a group. It turned out to be a very special evening...

MJ Ballooning has a YouTube Channel growing in popularity. We started uploading regular YouTube videos in 2016 and since then have never been to a launch without uploading a video. It has built up over the years and now there are 300 videos for everyone to enjoy. 

We are very excited to announce MJ Ballooning has a brand-new blog section. Myself, Matt, will be writing blog posts about local goings on at Ashton Court and Bath, the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, our favourite moments and insights into some interesting special shape stories.