AUBURN — It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s … a giant ark-shaped hot air balloon?

Arky, the first shaped balloon to visit the Great Falls Balloon Festival, is making a reappearance this year at the 20th annual festival Aug. 17 to 19 in Lewiston-Auburn. 

Mickey Reeder, one of the Balloon Festival founders and this year’s balloonmeister, said she’s really looking forward to seeing Arky again. “He has so many unique appendages, with the animals (on board). He is a real work of art.”

Reeder said this year’s Arky is “a new version of the old Arky” due to the wear and tear and color-fading that balloons suffer, but he is sure to produce a “nice retro feeling” longtime festival-goers will surely appreciate.

The balloon nostalgia is fitting, as the theme of this year’s festival is “Celebrating 20 years of flight,” focusing on the memories and history of L-A’s summer tradition.

Joining Arky is Gus T. Guppy, Stinky the Skunk and the Flying Purple People Eater. While each year’s theme usually focuses on the four special balloons visiting the festival that year, Christina Noonan, marketing and media director for the balloon festival, said that with such a “motley crew of shapes (this year), it’s difficult to create a theme for them,” so instead the theme is “more about the festival itself.”

For Reeder, the 20-year mark is a huge milestone. “It’s like a baby growing up and suddenly turning 20. It’s very gratifying.”

Given the number of balloons involved and the 100,000 to 125,000 people expected to attend the three-day event, Reeder said she is proud to host one of the largest festivals of its kind in the New England area. “I just feel so grateful that this has succeeded for 20 years.” 

Ten committee members work together all year long to organize the event. This year they have scheduled 15 other hot air balloons, along with the four special balloons, including a new, colorful balloon called Going Batty.

“There’s a balloon called Great Balls of Fire that I’ve always liked,” Noonan said, adding that Gus T. Guppy is “pretty cute.”

“My favorite all-time balloon was a big dragon,” Reeder said, describing a balloon from about 15 years ago. “As it was blowing up, the head and teeth would drape over the spectators. It was very fun.”

The cost for a balloon ride is $200 per person. Rides can be booked in advance through the Great Falls Balloon Festival website or purchase tickets at the information booth when the festival starts. Launches will take place every day at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. at the main site, Simard-Payne Memorial Park, locally known as Railroad Park. Food and trade vendors will also be located there. 

Tethered balloon rides are available for $10 per person. Entertainment will include a variety of bands, groups and talents at Auburn’s Festival Plaza stage and the stage at Simard-Payne Memorial Park.

Nonprofit organizations will sell food throughout the festival weekend, Noonan said, providing “fundraising opportunities for groups and to showcase the Auburn-Lewiston area.”

For more information, visit www.greatfallsballoonfestival.org or call 782-2637.

More info

For more on the Great Falls Balloon Festival, including a complete schedule of events, go to www.greatfallsballoonfestival.org.

Cheap thrills, short thrills

The excitement was like being a little kid again. … I was lifting my leg to climb into the basket of a hot air balloon (glad I wore slacks; one of the other women was wearing a mini-skirt!). It was the 1999 Balloon Festival and, because the person who brokered the purchase of my house was affiliated with ReMax and mine was his biggest sale, I was going to experience one of my thrills of a lifetime.

It was snug in that basket, but, as the balloon soared upward, I was awestruck. The higher we climbed, the more incredible the view: My L-A was beautiful. We flew over Ss. Peter and Paul and I noticed the silence … there was no sound but the woosh of the gas pouring into the balloon. I didn’t expect such silence.

We were 10 minutes into the flight and we started down … what the he–?!? In my mind this was supposed to be an hour flight followed by champagne! Within 15 minutes of taking off, we landed in the parking area in front of the arena. Why? Because ReMax had promised others a flight; we had to disembark so they could embark.

What if I refused to lift my leg to climb out?, I wondered. I wanted the thrill to be complete. But, in those days, I was too nice to make a fuss. That full flight is now on my bucket list … and I WANT IT NOW!

— Jan Barrett, Lewiston

A ‘boy,’ a bike and a balloon

The evening in 2009 looked to be an uneventful one at the balloon festival. It was a little too windy and there was a constant threat of rain. It was doubtful any balloons would launch. So I figured I would just kill time until nightfall and maybe catch some of the moon glows. I started to ride my bicycle in loops around the festival area, going over the bridges and along the river.

On a pass over the Lown Bridge I spotted a lone balloon coming down from Walton Field. It was drifting in a northish direction, from New Auburn toward Auburn. It was going at a good clip, but the pilot was able to keep it fairly low. The conditions were not the best for photos, but that hasn’t stopped me in the past. So I decided to give chase.

The balloon cruised over Florian’s, Central School, Food Town … er, I mean Shop ‘n Save … er, I mean Hannaford, Thai Dish, Domino’s. I was in heaven meandering through the neighborhoods playing the role of town crier. “Hey, there is a balloon going over your house.” “Look, just past that tree, there is a balloon coming.” “The new phone book is here.”

About the time I got up to Hampshire and Goff streets, I noticed I was playing leapfrog with a big red SUV, with lots of lettering and more flashing lights. The Chase Vehicle. They were trying to keep an eye on the balloon and find a place for it to put down. I noticed the out-of-state plates and the look of confusion on the guy riding shotgun. I love to give directions (my exes will read that as “I like to tell people where to go”) so on their next pull-over-and-peak on Gamage Avenue, I rode up alongside and struck up a conversation. I snuck in the fact that “there is a ball field (Pettingill Park) right over those trees.”

He then spews out a bunch of technical balloon jargon like: “He is tracking away from there” and “He has too much altitude to get down there.” But he does ask: “If he does get in there, how do we get there?”

I lived “a Johnny Damon throw” (real close) to Pettingill for a while so I tell him, “Next right, follow that around a sharp left and then first right.” I am near physical bliss.

So he heads off and I start up the hill, following him. YES! it is a hill. I am old, overweight and out of shape. It felt like a hill. As I get over the hill a parade of cars start passing me — the unofficial chase vehicles. Just as I start down into Pettingill Park, I realize he was right, they were tracking wrong and had too much altitude to put down there. As I’m turning around, I pass some of the parade and tell them: “They are tracking away from here, too much altitude.”

I cipher they are headed north, toward Summer Street, Mt. Auburn Avenue or Garcelon Road. So I head UP Field Avenue and work my way UP the streets of that neighborhood. I am huffing and puffing like a wolf looking for little pigs.

The C.V. was finally able to get turned around and work his way back through the parade of cars, and came up alongside and asked for directions. I let them know that I thought the balloon could put down at Lakeview Fields on Garcelon and gave them directions.

He roars off with a motor that sounded larger than my apartment. I start pedaling up toward Smitty’s Store. I am half expecting to hear Toto barking in a basket behind me. As you know, there is a mountain on Park Street just past the Methodist church. I am about to die. I am hoping one of the straggler parade cars or a bargain-hunter mother on her way to Wally World will notice my limp body and call 911.

I climb the hill using the tried-and-true method of every 10-year-old on a bike, I “serpentined” my way up. As I plateau I find that I am catching some of the parade, as there are a few turnoffs between the church and Summer Street, and they checked every one. I pick up speed on the hill down toward Whitings. To make a long story a wee bit shorter, I was wrong.

They put down in Mt. Auburn Cemetery. So I pedaled over and was able to help guide the envelope down among the tombstones, help collapse it and stow it away. As you can see, I am about as easy to entertain as a teenage boy.

Since dusk was coming on strong, I figured I better head for home. I had a genuine feeling of accomplishment, and exhaustion, as I coasted back down into town.

— David Damon, Lewiston

Above the trees, barely

During the first balloon festival, I hooked up with Joe Longtin, whom I had taken a photo of a few months before and who was the father of one of our sports reporters. I arrived at his home on outer College Street in Lewiston just before the sun came up. He took the door off of his experimental kit plane that he put together, started up the engine — which sounded like a glorified lawnmower engine — and I wriggled into the seat. The grassy strip next to his house sloped DOWN, and it was short and not very smooth. As I sat there while he revved the engine and went over his checklist, I looked up at the trees looming a short distance ahead. They were at eye level; the end of the “runway” was far lower.

“OK,” I thought, “he has done this many times before. But with a big load like me and all my gear … yikes!”

We roared down the strip and cleared the trees by at least an inch or two. He looked over at me and smiled. “You look a little pale, Russ!” I wondered if he could hear me praying on the way down the runway.

The air was crisp and clear, and we floated over to Great Falls where the balloons were inflating. It was a calm morning and the balloons pretty much all hovered over the river and the downtown. It was a spectacular launch, the first of many I have covered from planes, balloons, boats and a variety of other various modes of transportation. However, the memory of bouncing down that grassy strip, looking down at the grass and rocks, wondering if we would ever lift off and clear the trees, is seared into my memory forever.

Although Joe is a great pilot and I had all the confidence in the world in him, it was a little unnerving at the time. It ended up being a great story that I often tell when the subject of the balloon festival comes up.

— Russ Dillingham, Lewiston

What goes up fast, must …

My hot air balloon experience began on a Friday when I went to meet with the other people and the owner who was going to take us up. He explained to us what we could expect and what to do when we were coming down. The van brought us to the takeoff point, and the volunteers and the owners got the balloon ready for takeoff, which was very smooth.

After being in the air for half an hour or so, we started to go down very fast and the owner was trying to give it more gas so that we would go slower. While we were going down he told us to be prepared for a hard landing. I knelt down and held on to the straps as the balloon went over a fence and we bounced around in a field. Then the balloon pulled us down and we dragged for about 200 feet.

When it stopped we were all lying down flat on each other. It took a few minutes for us to get up and out of the bucket. It was quite a harrowing experience that ended quite well, and that none of us would ever forget.

— Corinne Rea, Fayette

‘Splish Splash, I was embarrassing my brother …’

Our family enjoys attending the Great Falls Balloon Festival every year. My favorite memory is from 2010. My husband, my sons (ages 9 and 11 at the time) and I sat in front of the Main Stage at Simard-Payne park to listen to the Delta Knights perform on Saturday afternoon.

A few elderly folks got up and danced as the Delta Knights played a few slow numbers. When the band broke out into “Splish Splash” (I was takin’ a bath) my 11-year-old suddenly jumped up and started dancing. Since he was the only person dancing to this fast number, he took full advantage of the large dance area. He busted out all the dance moves he knew and had the whole audience in stitches and cheering as he jumped up and down, rolled around on the grass and even did “The Worm.”

My husband quickly caught the whole thing with the video camera on his phone. It wasn’t until we got home that night and watched the video that we realized that my younger son was also in the video. He can be seen in the corner of the shot, with his baseball hat pulled down over his eyes and his shirt pulled up to meet the brim of his hat.

Every once and a while in the video you see him peek out to see if the embarrassment of his brother’s performance is over yet. When we asked him what he was doing during the song, he simply replied, “Hiding and hoping no one knew I was with you guys!”

— Dawn Hartill, Lewiston

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