Igualada's sky takes center stage at European Balloon Festival with 50 hot air balloons

The skies of Igualada in central Catalonia filled with 50 hot air balloons from around the world to compete at the European Balloon Festival on Thursday morning.

The latest edition of the festival started bright and early with the sun shining behind the mountains surrounding Igualada, visible from the ‘take off field’ located at Parc Central d’Igualada.

Around 50 hot air balloons were deployed in the area before 6 am, all surrounding this year’s novelty, the unveiling of the latest worldwide innovation: the Near Spacecraft that will be able to fly at 20,000 meters altitude. Commercial planes fly at 10,000 meters.

The capsule was designed by Zero 2 Infinity and adapted by Ultramagic, a company from Igualada specialized in hot air balloons.

A short demonstration of the new cabin took place in front of dozens of journalists at 6:30 am, just minutes before Igualada’s Parc Central became a mushroom field, as hot air balloons quickly inflated to transport their first passengers.

The first design will be part of Dutch-Turkish DJ Burak Yeter's gig that he wants to do in space, and the "first test will be at 10,000 meters," Neus Lladó, operations director at Ultramagic, told journalists ahead of the event.

In the future, the "capsule will be pressurized and the current balloon is a standard one, but in the future we will manufacture one ready to go to space," she added.

The original idea behind the project was "to promote space tourism or even research" but at the moment "the only project that has been financed is the DJ one," Lladó said.

The balloons are competing at European level between Thursday and Sunday, and come from different countries such as England, France, Brazil, Monaco, Switzerland, Italy, Tunisia, and Morocco.

“Visca la tramuntana!” someone shouted in reference to the 3 km/h northern wind in Igualada.

This will be the 28th European Balloon Festival and it will see many hot air balloon flights between Thursday and Sunday in the morning, and between Thursday and Saturday in the afternoon. Friday morning, however, will be one of the most special days of the festival, as flights will take off from different parts of the city, rather than just Parc Central.

First time or recurrent passenger

The first hot air balloons flights were full of people, including journalists and members of the organization, but also some curious guests.

Some, for the first time travelling on a hot air balloon such as Ukrainian Kristina Rotionova, who currently lives in Catalonia with her family. They were flying on the first flight with one of the several companies on site as it was a gift by her father to her mother.

”[Flying with a hot air balloon] was pretty scary at first, but it is really cool and pretty,” she told Catalan News.

“When you are down there, and you get to see all these balloons it is very pretty, it shows that someone is up there,” she said during the flight.

Meanwhile, Igualada resident Carme Solé is an expert and has flown on hot air balloons before.

”I really like to fly a lot and being able to see everything from up here,  the mountains or Igualada, as it is our city,” she told Catalan News.

“When you are flying alone, it is just you, and you are the only hot air balloon in the sky, but here, you get to see so many hot air balloons, some flying at higher or lower altitudes, and you have another view,” she said.