Up, Up and Away!

Yes, the XXIV Festival de Aerostación will be held in Guadix from the 26th to the 28th of this month. We're talking about hot-air balloons!

GRA Ballooning EventThe meet enjoys the collaboration of the Sports Department of the Provincial Council and is part of the Campeonato de Andalucía.

Provincial Councillor Eric Escobedo, the Mayor of Guadix and the Chairman of the Glovento Sur (which organised the event) presented the poster for this year’s edition.

Obviously, you can organise where competitors will take off from, but not where they are going to land because it depends on the prevailing winds on the chosen days; being hot-air balloons you can steer the balloon up and down, but the rest is up to the wind.

A total of 15 teams will participate with flights “planned” to fly above the Geoparque de Granada, the cities of Guadix and Granada, as well as Sierra Nevada.

The Chairman of Glovento Sur, Miguel Juliá, said, “It’s an Andalusian championship with fifteen balloons participating,” pointing out that people who practice this activity are few and far between. However, they are already thinking of participating in European meets where there are around 100 balloons at such gatherings.

The first trial will be a trip up the Sierra Nevada, lifting off at 08.30 on Friday the 26th. Then on Saturday, those that survive (just kidding) also with a lift-off time of 08.30h, will participate in a tethered display over the Geoparque de Granada, followed by a flight over Guadix at 17.00h. Finally on Sunday, the flight will be over the city of Granada, lifting off as before at 08.30h.

Sounds like a fun thing to watch, if you have no plans for that weekend!

(News/Noticias: Guadix, Granada, Andalucia)

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