After the highs of the perfect flying conditions of Friday to the lows of the cancellation of the mass launches on Saturday night and Sunday morning this year's Bristol International Balloon Fiesta has drawn to an end.
Dozens of balloons took off towards Bristol for the final mass launch on Sunday evening. The event has attracted more than 500,000 people over the past 4 days and organisers say on Saturday they experienced unprecedented numbers of visitors.
"It's just been fantastic" said display director Clive Bailey "Every fiesta is great and the weather makes it. It was completely rammed last night for the glow and to get away tonight for a closing flight over the city is what everybody wants."
Mr Bailey said it was a tough call to call off the flights on Saturday night and Sunday morning "It's really difficult - Saturday morning we managed to get some of the smaller balloons up but it was too windy for some of the balloons and some of the pilots and it was certainly too windy to take passenger rides out. Last night it was a no-brainer - it was too windy and this morning with the thunder storms.
"Safety has to come first and then enjoyment second - its a tough decision sometimes but we are generally right when we make them."
With such success comes congestion both in and around the site and, as many people have reported on the comments to This is Bristol, car parks and traffic management were a problem.
"It took us TWO HOURS to get out of that car park and that's me being generous with the time. Two hours of utter gridlock and incompetence. Not a single parking steward to be seen. Not one." (Fally Hag)
"We could NOT get home. Car park gridlocked, all road options once out, closed or blocked. We had to head out on the airport road and then come back cross-country. What would normally take a couple of minutes up a hill took more like an hour heading in the wrong direction." (Ellam)
"Bristol Balloon fiasco... Never again. Left at 6.30pm car park was grid locked got out at 8.20pm. Marshalls everywhere when we entered, hardly any to direct traffic when we left. Utter disgrace !!" (Tomandjane21)
Ben Hardy, project manager for the Fiesta commented: "We are sorry for any problems people experienced yesterday evening driving to or leaving the balloon fiesta car parks, which were caused by unprecedented levels of interest in the event.
"The car parks filled up earlier than we've ever experienced and we then worked closely with the police to put in measures to ease traffic movement around the site and help vehicles exit as quickly as possible.
"We are aware that some people who had bought advance car parking tickets were unable to get to the site and members of the public are free to get in touch with the Fiesta office if they have concerns.
"We will review our traffic management system after the event as we do every year to see if we can make any improvements and in the meantime we want to thank people for their patience yesterday evening and for their fantastic support for the event."
Despite the flight cancellations and traffic congestion on site today many people were having a great day. "We've enjoyed it" said Vera Quartermain who travelled from Hampshire especially for the fiesta. "The highlight was the Friday evening take off and we liked the Thursday night glow very much – that was special. We did come yesterday and it was very crowded."
"It's been well worth the effort of coming"
On Sunday afternoon the Blades Display Team put on an incredible display of aerial acrobatics. The full-time display team were flying at the festival for the first time and the mid-air manoeuvres of the 4 planes had the crowds entranced.
James Cliff from the Blades said "The guys are very well practised. We practise all winter out of our base in Northamptonshire not so much in summer as we fly constantly. This week alone we've done 6 displays and each one is meticulously planned before hand and de-briefed afterwards so we are used to doing such manoeuvers. After doing it in the military and then the civilian world the pilots are experts at it."
10 year old Oliver Townsend spent most of the display peeping through his fingers "It was fantastic" he said "I'm not sure I'd want to do it though!"
As the balloons took off for the final finale the clouds cleared and the sun broke through. "I've loved it – the launches are just something really special" said Jeremy Clarke from Downend. "The traffic has been dreadful but overall it's been worth it. I just need to get home now."
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