Lewiston – Not even Sunday’s rain could mar the success of the 14th annual Great Falls Balloon Festival.

Organizers seemed unfazed by the cancellation of events on Sunday. Jim Wilkins, vice president of the Great Falls Balloon Festival’s board of directors, said two days was all that was needed to break last year’s records.

“If we group all the nonprofit groups together, preliminary estimates show a slight increase in gross revenue from last year,” he said.

Nancy Barry, president of the festival’s board, said Friday evening was a record-breaking day for the nonprofits.

Don Grant of Grant’s Bakery, who sold french fries, chicken nuggets and onion rings for the Lewiston Auburn Rotary Club, agreed with Barry.

“Not only did we see a 15 percent increase in sales from our 13 previous balloon festivals, but we sold as much food Friday night as we usually do in two days,” Grant marveled Sunday afternoon. “We ran out of a lot of our food by Saturday afternoon, so we would have been in trouble had festivities not been canceled today.”

Art Burgess of the Auburn Catholic Youth Ministries also said it was his organization’s most successful festival weekend.

“Between the fajitas we were grilling and the chowder donated by the Village Inn Restaurant in Auburn, we were consistently busy,” Burgess said Sunday afternoon.

Grant speculated that the absence of the Festival De Joie this summer contributed to the balloon festival’s prosperity.

The number of people attending this year’s festival had not been calculated as of Sunday night.

Wilkins, who spent Sunday wrapping up the festival in the rain, said things went off without a glitch.

“We had five spectacular balloon launches, which is more than we could ask for,” Wilkins said.

Saturday morning’s launch of more than 40 balloons drew many spectators.

“The balloons are what entice people to attend the festival. When we can’t launch balloons, crowds dwindle,” Wilkins noted.

“Saturday afternoon, which is usually a slow period, drew a lot more people than usual,” Burgess added.

Even though the weather ended the festival a day early, Wilkins was thankful that the rain held off until Sunday.

“Sunday is typically our slowest day,” Wilkins explained. “Had Friday or Saturday been rained out, the festival wouldn’t have been nearly as prosperous.”

After the busy excitement of the weekend, Wilkins was concerned with the clean-up of the event Sunday afternoon.

“Out of respect for the city, our goal is to collect all the trash floating around and retrieve our equipment from the field without tearing it apart.”

Wilkins said that production, set up, and, so far, clean up of the festival went incredibly smoothly because of several upgrades made to the festival.

Burgess and Grant agreed that new canopy tents purchased by the Great Falls Balloon Festival organization were a huge improvement. The tents allowed all food vendors to be under one roof, and provided easier assembly, better ventilation, and more space for vendors. The red and white striped tents also brought more color and an improved presentation to Railroad Park.

“We got 10 feet of width with the tents rather than 8 feet in the old booths,” said Burgess. “That might not seem like a whole lot, but that extra space made a big difference.”

Other upgrades included more access to electricity, improvements to performance stages, and a new production team.

That “team did a superb job of creating a better festival atmosphere,” Wilkins said.

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