The Great Falls Balloon Festival held an unusual Monday morning launch in an effort to salvage some of this weekend’s canceled balloon rides.

The festival normally schedules six launches over Friday, Saturday and Sunday. On average, four launches go. But this year, rain, fog and wind forced the cancellation of all but one, Saturday morning’s. To help make that up to passengers, organizers scheduled a new launch Monday, a day after the festival’s official end. Ten balloons went up.   

Twenty-eight balloons attended the festival this year, including a pair of fish balloons in honor of this year’s festival theme, “World of Water.” Approximately 70,000 to 75,000 people attended the festival, down about 25,000 from past festivals. 

Visit sunjournal.com/balloonfestival to share your own photos, read stories and watch video from the weekend’s festivities.