Up, Up & Away
Balloon Fair Returns to Montague Skies…
“When you see them up in the air, you don’t really see the basket so much. You see the balloon itself, and it’s just spectacular,” says Suzie Clark, current president of the Montague Rotary and one of the volunteers behind the organization’s annual Balloon Fair. “The first time I saw it, I was absolutely in awe.”
Clark’s first glimpse happened by accident. “I had just moved to Montague, and I’d vaguely heard something about a hot air balloon fair over the weekend. Then I look up, and there’s a hot air balloon landing in the field across the street from my house. Of course, out comes the camera. I swear I must have taken 1,000 shots. They laid out tarps so they could deflate it, and then they folded this enormous balloon into one of those little utility trailers. I have no idea how they did it. That’s when I decided I needed to learn more.”
Today, Clark helps organize the very event that first caught her attention. Every third weekend in September, the Montague Balloon Fair fills the skies over the Shasta Valley during one of the West Coast’s longest-running hot air balloon festivals. “The Balloon Fair has been in existence since 1992. Originally it was overseen by a tourism board run by the County Supervisors, until Montague Rotary took it over in 1999. Shasta Valley Rotary then ran it for about 15 years before it came back to Montague Rotary. Except for COVID in 2020 and 2021, it’s run continuously since 1992.”
Montague and the surrounding Shasta Valley are part of what keep pilots coming back. Not only do the area’s wide-open pastures provide ideal launch and landing sites, but the valley also offers spectacular scenery and favorable flying conditions. “We have pretty big winds in Montague,” Clark says. “Getting the balloon up isn’t the only thing. It’s actually being able to move. Of course, there’s a pilot in the basket, and the pilot is definitely necessary. But most people don’t realize it’s the wind that really determines where you go. That’s why each balloon has a crew to help them launch and a chase vehicle so when they come down, the crew will be there.”
Clark has also seen what happens when nature refuses to cooperate. “I think it was two years ago. The balloons went up. There was enough air to get them up, but they just didn’t move. They kind of sat there until they came down.”
The weekend has grown into far more than a balloon launch. “We try to make it a whole destination weekend of things to do. Visitors can spend Friday evening strolling downtown Montague, browse craft vendors throughout the weekend, enjoy breakfast served by local nonprofits, watch Saturday’s parade, or simply settle in and watch the sky. Lots of people stay in Yreka, which is just five minutes away. But we also allow up to 150 RVs to dry camp, and many of them are parked right along the runway. You get there Thursday afternoon for the Friday morning launch. You can literally, in your jammies, with your coffee, watch the balloons go up. It is absolutely stunning.”
On Saturday night, the spectacle continues. “The balloons fire up, but they don’t launch,” Clark says of Night Glow. “Everything else is dark, and you just see these bright lights inside the balloons. It’s so hard to explain how it looks. They’re like lanterns. Last year they pulsed the burners in sync with the music for several minutes. It was just beautiful.”
Although general admission is free, proceeds from nonprofit booths and Balloon Fair merchandise go right back into the community. “We work really hard together to improve where we live,” Clark says. “Everyone that comes out to volunteer is people helping people.”
Even after years of helping organize the Balloon Fair, Clark admits there’s still one thing she hasn’t crossed off her own list. “I am terrified of heights,” she says with a laugh. “But for people like me that still want to experience the joy of being in a balloon, the Balloon Fair offers a limited number of tethered rides that lift visitors about 50 feet into the air while the balloon remains secured to the ground. A lot of people really enjoy those because they don’t take a lot of time, and they’re more affordable. Every year I say, ‘I’m going to do this.’ But then I get so dedicated to people enjoying our event that I end up making sure everybody else gets to do it first.” But Clark promises she isn’t giving up. “Maybe this year.” •
Montague Balloon Fair • September 18-20 • Montague Airport and other sites
www.montagueballoonfair.com
