LEWISTON — Balloon pilot Jim Rodrigue said he doesn’t get too worked up about weather forecasts.
“If they forecast a great weekend, I never believe it on Wednesday,” said Rodrigue of Lewiston, a Great Falls Balloon Festival pilot since 1999. “I don’t even worry about the weather until it’s time to fly. I’ll wake up in the morning, check the briefing and the computer and decide what I’m going to do.”
Rodrigue and the rest of the pilots of the the 22nd annual Great Falls Balloon Festival are scheduled to launch at 6 a.m. Friday for the first of six scheduled launches this week.
Rodrigue, who’s scheduled to fly his balloon, “Tailwinds,” this weekend, said he’d be lucky to have the kind of weather the festival had last year. He went eight for eight last year — including flights before and after the festival.
“But if we get two or three, that’ll be OK, too,” he said.
Balloonmeister Mickey Reeder said Thursday that organizers and balloon pilots both had their fingers crossed that the weather would hold out. Rain on Saturday or Sunday could delay launches, but winds would be dangerous.
“The problem with balloons isn’t getting them up. It’s coming down,” Reeder said. “A lot of times, you can be on the field, you’ll look at the balloons and think, ‘It’s not so bad.’ But you can’t tell what it’s doing 1,000 feet up.”
Weather forecasts call for mostly cloudy skies Friday, with highs in the 70s. More sun is expected Saturday, but the clouds return Sunday with the potential for rain.
The second launch is set for 6 p.m. Friday. Launches are scheduled at 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday as well, weather permitting.
“Right now, the forecast calls for pretty clear weather, right up until Sunday night,” Reeder said. “I’m hoping that the forecast keeps moving that back. Maybe we can push the storm off until Monday.”
The festival takes a midday break for the rest of Friday, but picks back up in earnest at 4 p.m. with food booths opening at Lewiston’s Simard-Payne Memorial Park and Auburn’s Festival Plaza, along with the children’s area, craft and trade vendors and the festival carnival at the corner of Chestnut and Lincoln streets.
The festival’s Moonglow, featuring festival pilots lighting the park with their inflated and lit balloons, is scheduled for 9 p.m.
The festival continues Saturday morning with another balloon launch and a pancake breakfast at 6 a.m., followed by a special pancake breakfast with festival guests the Pirates of the Dark Rose at 8 a.m.
Pirates will set up their camp in the park and will participate in the festival parade from Academy Street in Auburn to Chestnut Street in Lewiston.
The pirates will present cannon lessons and a small arms demonstration and will host a “Buccaneer Bootcamp” for kids ages 6-12.
The festival wraps up Sunday with more balloon launches, more pirate battles and more live music.
Rodrigue took the festival’s pirate theme to heart, donning a pirate bandanna, a sword and set of colored beads in his beard. The beads, colored to match the colors of his balloon, Tailwinds, were his wife’s idea.
“I wanted to have a long ponytail, a rat-tail, off the back of my head,” he said. “But my wife said I’d trip over it.”
#GFBalloonFest
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.
Look for our coverage at:
- SunJournal.com/BalloonFestival
- SunJournal on Instagram
- @SunJournal on Twitter
- Lewiston Sun Journal on Facebook
You can also share your photos by sending them to balloonfest@sunjournal.com.
Friday’s Schedule
Lewiston
- 6 a.m.: Balloon Launch
- 4–9 p.m.: Children’s Area open
- 4–10 p.m.: Food Booths open
- 4–10 p.m.: Carnival
- 5–10 p.m.: Craft and Trade Vendors open
- 5–10 p.m.: Dannon Oikos Yogurt — free samples!
- 5 p.m.: Skosh
- 6 p.m.: Balloon Launch
- 7 p.m.: Brazen Cane
- 8:20 p.m.: Imara Belly Dancers
- 9 p.m.: Moonglow (rain date Saturday)
- 9 p.m.: Jeroba Jump
Auburn
- 4–10 p.m.: Food Booths open
- 5:30 p.m.: Ron Bergeron
- 6:30 p.m.: Roadhouse
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- Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce staff, from left to right, Jennifer Ziebart, Maureen Aube, Chip Morrison and Deborah Carroll accept the ALU ice bucket challenge at the Great Falls Balloon Festival Business After Hours Thursday in Lewiston.
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- Androscoggin County Chamber of Commerce staff, from left, Jennifer Ziebart, Maureen Aube, Chip Morrison and Deborah Carroll, accept the ALS ice bucket challenge at the Great Falls Balloon Festival Business After Hours on Thursday in Lewiston.
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