LEWISTON — Now in it’s 22nd year, the Twin Cities’ signature Great Falls Balloon Festival looks a little different than it did back in the 1990s.

Festival Balloon Meister Mickey Reeder said she’s expecting 17 balloons for a the 2014 festival, which kicks off Friday morning with launches at Lewiston’s Simard-Payne Park.

That’s about half as many balloons as the festival had at its peak, and there are some good reasons for that.

“It’s our goal to keep the festival downtown and focus on that area,” Reeder said. “We used to have the field (in Great Falls Plaza) but it’s not available to us any longer. So we have to concentrate on the what we can put on the one main field, Simard Payne Park. We can’t put on more than 20 balloons, especially with the crowds we get.”

Reeder said that between 15 and 20 balloons is the perfect number for a festival the size of Lewiston-Auburn’s. It’s becoming the common number of balloons for medium-sized festivals around the country, she said. 

“It’s an expensive hobby and people get into it, but when they have to replace the equipment they do something less expensive,” she said. “It’s what’s going on with ballooning.”

The first balloons of the festival should be launched at 6 a.m. Friday in the Lewiston park, weather permitting.

The festival continues at 4 p.m. Friday in Lewiston’s Simard-Payne Park — formerly Railroad Park — and at Auburn’s Festival Plaza across the river, with volunteer food booths and vendors and live music continuing into the evening.

Balloons launches are scheduled for six times during the festival, depending upon the weather. Morning launches are scheduled for 6 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Evening launches are scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

A balloon moon glow — tethered balloons lit up for the night — is scheduled for 9 p.m. Friday.

The festival is expanding beyond balloon launches this year with a downtown Lewiston-Auburn parade and a pirate theme.

“People ask what’s happening, and it’s usually food booths and live entertainment,” said Marketing Director Christina Noonan. “This year, we wanted something else, and this pirate theme makes things so much fun.”

Last year’s festival had a beach theme, and the board wanted to expand that this year.

“We wanted something that everyone can get involved in; something men, women, girls, boys could get excited about and dress up for,” Noonan said.

The festival features Rockport-based Pirates of the Black Rose, who will set up a pirate encampment in Simard-Payne Park and host cannon lessons and small arms demonstrations on Saturday and puppet shows and a full-on pirate battle on Sunday.

“They do pirate stuff all up and down the East Coast and they have their own pirate ship, although they can’t bring it up the river,” Noonan said.

Reeder said organizers are hopeful the weather will cooperate and provide plenty of clear skies for launches. As of Tuesday, weather forecasts were calling for rain Wednesday and into Thursday, clearing up on Friday and the weekend.

“I looked at the forecast 10 days ago and my heart sunk,” Reeder said. “It looked like we’d have a total rain-out weekend. But now it’s looking like the chance of storms is getting smaller and smaller and that would work just fine for me.”

staylor@sunjournal.com

#GFBalloonFest: Watch the launch; share the launch

If you can’t make it to the Great Falls Balloon Festival this weekend, you can still watch each balloon launch on SunJournal.com. We will be sharing photos and videos of the festival fun in our social networks.

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