Plano Balloon Festival 2009 Launches Today

by candice.tsuei | September 18, 2009 at 10:06 am

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The EDS Credit Union Plano Balloon Festival celebrated its 30th anniversary today as it began its three-day run from Sept. 18-20 at Oak Point Park in Plano. More than 60 colorful hot air balloons will fill the sky and there will be concerts and performances from a parachute team.

To mark its 30th birthday, Plano Balloon Festival is giving out cupcakes to the first 3,000 festival-goers. With more than 80,000 people attending the event annually, the balloon festival has helped name Plano the Hot Air Balloon Capital of Texas. Founded in 1979, the festival has generated more than $2 million for area non-profit groups and organizations through the years, and has proven itself to be one of the most successful fund-raising community events in the area. It is expected that over 95,000 people will attend the festival this year.

According to Jo Via, executive director of the festival:

“From children’s activities to port-a-potties, everything we’ve done for the festival has gotten larger -- increased number of food and merchandise vendors, increased number of participating non-profits, increased population.”

There is live music all day, including performance from the Plano Community Band. The festival will also provide a wide range of festival food including funnel cakes from the Plano West Rotary Club, Dickey's famous barbeque, Conway's great corn dogs, B.C. Kettle Korn, and Henry's homemade ice cream. For the balloon lovers, balloons will launch at 6 p.m. Sept. 18 and 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Sept. 19 and 20.

It is a weekend filled with colorful balloons: read about the Great Forest Park Balloon Race 2009 in St. Louis, Missouri