Wing walkers

We were up early again this morning to walk up to the Clifton observatory and watch the 6am balloon launch at the Bristol Balloon Fiesta.  From there, the balloons can be seen rising the other side of the famous suspension bridge.  Unfortunately, this morning, what little breeze there was took the balloons away from us, so I couldn't get a classic shot of a balloon over the bridge, but it was still enjoyable to watch, and it was another glorious sunny morning.

This afternoon we went on to the Ashton Court estate to watch the activities at the launch ground.  Apart from the hot air balloons, there were also displays of "Parabatix", parachuting, and these crazy Breitling wing walkers.  The mass balloon launch in the evening was quite exciting, with the showground so packed with balloons that they were touching each other as they inflated and there were a couple which seemed uncomfortably close to each other on take off.

The grounds were packed with visitors and, indeed, in the evening they announced that the car parks and entry gates had been closed to further visitors because the ground was full - the first time that had ever happened over the years this event has been run.  After the mass launch, there was to be a "night glow" followed by fireworks but, seeing the sheer numbers of people in the ground, we chose to leave to start making our way back to our city centre hotel.  It proved to be a good decision. We made our way to the shuttle bus stop only to find that there was already a queue of several hundred people waiting for the bus (with thousands more inside the ground yet to leave).  We set off to walk back to the city.  Later we learned that the roads around were gridlocked, they had stopped the shuttle buses from running, and thousands had been turned away from the ground (according to the BBC, it was estimated that 6000 people tried to get into the ground during one 15 minute period).

We had a thoroughly enjoyable day, but it is clear that the organisers will have to rethink some aspects of the event to prevent similar problems in the future.

I have posted some general pictures of the event on my Flickr page.