A Festival Weekend

Around the end of June

This event has been a major draw to Vermont for 20 years, and every year it seems to attract more people. It's a folksy and intimate event.

Rides cost about $210.00 per person - a bit pricey at first glance, but consider what you receive for your investment -- the trip of a lifetime. You float freely across the countryside - as free as a bird, gently, silently riding the faintest of early morning or late afternoon wind. Time seems to stand still as you are suspended between the earth and sky. Drinking in the natural beauty of the natural beauty below you and either the wispy fingers of the sunrise or the intense brilliance of the huge afternoon sun as it begins its settling in the western sky. Drifting sometimes at tree top height in the still air affords one a unique view of earthly life, a view often enhanced by the sounds of a fiddler's competition, the smells of chicken barbequing, the sight of a mime circus.

Flying in a hot air balloon is not something that you can count on like an airline schedule. The conditions have to be right. Most flights are made in the early morning or early evening, when the air is relatively cool and stable. An ideal wind speed for balloonists is between 4-to-6 mph, and they avoid flying if the wind speed is at or above 12 mph. Visibility is crucial. If the cloud layer is below 1,000 feet or visibility is reduced to less than three miles, then the flight is likely to be cancelled. But consider the phenomenon that the Quechee Balloon Festival and Crafts Fair can claim - in 20 years, Mother Nature has smiled kindly at least 90% of the time!

Besides the ballooning, there are bands playing throughout the festival on the village green, a book fair, and about 60 craft stalls to browse. There are also a dozen or so food stands, offering the standard festival fare.And each year brings new events -- in 1996, the local Ottauquechee School PTA sponsored "Cameron the Caterpillar", a hugely popular large inflated caterpillar on which children may safely clamor. Another unique feature of this event is the 18th century village encampment area which depicts life in the local 1750s trading camps; historic interpreters enhance this educational experience, and the 18th century cannon booms out an authentic piece of history several times a day.

Lodging can be tight -- after all, Quechee is a small town and the sudden influx of 20,000 or more people over a three-day weekend causes somewhat of a circus. The town has only 150 rooms available for visitors, and these are always booked well in advance as are nearby private campgrounds, the Quechee Gorge State Park and area inns, b&bs and hotels. Some people book their accommodations a year in advance for the event -- latecomers will most likely find a place to stay, but maybe a bit further away. Check with the Quechee Chamber of Commerce for late-breaking accommodation news and Scenes of Vermont's own lodging list.

Come join the festivities if you can. You will find the experience enjoyable, swinging from the quiet beauty of the balloons overhead to the gaiety of the events below. There is truly something for everybody!

A Balloonist's Prayer:
The winds have welcomed you with softness. The sun has blessed you with his warm hands. You have flown so high and so well that God joined you in laughter and set you gently back onto Mother Earth.