- Title: Up, up and away in hot air balloon festival
- Date: 25th July 2021
- Summary: READINGTON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (JULY 24, 2021) (REUTERS) WOMAN HOLDING ROPE WHILE AIR IN BALLOON IS INFLATED BALLOON'S AIR BEING INFLATED WOMAN HOLDING ROPE PILOT IN BASKET WIDE OF PEOPLE IN BASKET JUST BEFORE FLIGHT CLOSE-UP OF FIRE UNDER BALLOON BALLOON RISING TO SKY PEOPLE WATCHING PEOPLE WORKING ON COLORFUL BALLOON (SOUNDBITE) (English) SCOTT MCCLINTON, 56-YEAR-OLD CERTIFIED COMMERCIAL PILOT AND OWNER OF SKYCAB BALLOON PROMOTIONS WHICH IS BASED IN LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY, SAYING: "Ballooning was founded in France and that's where they perfected it. And, of course, the French like to drink wine. So at the end of every flight, we celebrate with a champagne toast. We toast first-time passengers. We toast landowners, because without landowners, we wouldn't have a place to land. And we toast our crew." ROW OF HOT AIR BALLOONS BEING READIED ON GROUND BEFORE THEY SET OFF HOT AIR BALLOONS PAN OF BALLOONS TAKING OFF AS SEEN FROM AIR BALLOONS FLOATING OVER FIELDS AS SEEN FROM AIR BALLOON FLOATING OVER FIELD FLEMINGTON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (JULY 24, 2021) (REUTERS) BALLOON LANDING MCCLINTON WORKING ON BALLOON THAT HAS LANDED IN KYRA (KEYE-rah) GRIMES' YARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) KYRA GRIMES, 23-YEAR-OLD FLEMINGTON RESIDENT AT WHOSE HOUSE BALLOON LANDED, SAYING: "I've lived here for 13 years in Flemington County in Flemington, New Jersey, and I've never had a balloon land in my backyard, ever, and I'm so excited because we were watching them from our porch this morning and, all of a sudden, there's a balloon that was right over our house and I was like, 'Land!' and they finally landed and I couldn't be happier." EMPTY HOT AIR BALLOON ON GROUND IN GRIMES' BACKYARD (SOUNDBITE) (English) (L-R) 56-YEAR-OLD MARYANN VELTRE, 62-YEAR-OLD DR. MARY CARLSON, 61-YEAR-OLD ELAINE DEBIASIO, FRIENDS AND PASSENGERS ON ONE OF THE BALLOONS THAT LANDED IN THE RESIDENTIAL AREA, SAYING: ELAINE DEBIASIO: I thought we were going to hit the house. MARYANN VELTRE: We ran out of wind. So they say. DEBIASIO: Yeah. We literally DEBIASIO AND MARY CARLSON (IN UNISON): Ran out of wind. DEBIASIO: I really thought we were going to hit the house. (LAUGHTER) And then we backed up a little bit and landed in their field. VELTRE: Then we see all the homeowners outside. Everybody's waving. Everybody's excited. You can see this is something that... DEBIASIO: They were drinking champagne. It's customary to bring the homeowner, if you land in their backyard, a bottle of champagne. So they had a toast. It was absolutely great. VELTRE: Yeah. MCCLINTON POURING CHAMPAGNE BALLOON OVER HOUSE GRIMES IN BACKYARD YELLING AT PEOPLE IN HOT AIR BALLOON 'LAND HERE!' VARIOUS OF BALLOON LANDING PEOPLE SITTING IN HOT AIR BALLOON AND HEARING CHAMPAGNE CORK POP PEOPLE TOASTING CHAMPAGNE VARIOUS OF MEN DEFLATING BALLOON
- Embargoed: 8th August 2021 01:16
- Keywords: balloon festival hot air balloons
- Location: READINGTON AND FLEMINGTON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
- City: READINGTON AND FLEMINGTON, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Human Interest/Brights/Odd News,Society/Social Issues,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001EN79ZRB
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: The 38th annual New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning set off on Saturday (July 24) from Readington, New Jersey, where crowds watched as over 100 colorful hot air balloons filled the sky.
The clear, sunny day and calm winds were ideal for flight as families enjoyed the festival that was returning after last year's event was canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism says the annual festival is the largest summertime hot air balloon and music festival in North America.
(Production: Hannah Beier, Arlene Eiras) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2021. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
