A balloon glow will be held at 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday nights. / Facebook.comLook up! It’s a Yoda hot-air balloon! It’s a biplane! A Huey helicopter!
Actually, all these and more will be overhead when the second Northwest Georgia Hot Air Balloon & Aviation Festival is held Friday and Saturday, June 28-29, at Richard Russell Airport in Rome, Georgia.
This festival will feature Darth Vader and Yoda-shaped balloons among the colorfully designed hot-air balloons participating.
The fun starts Friday night with crafts and food booths opening at 4 p.m. before tethered balloon rides begin at 5:30 p.m., weather permitting. There will also be biplane rides available from 4 to 7 p.m.
The specialty-shaped balloons will set up at 7:30 p.m. Friday in time for a balloon glow at 9 p.m.
Bring your cameras for photo-ops offered at the balloon glow. While tethered to the ground, hot-air balloons are inflated when their pilots light them from within. Pilots coordinate the burn so that the colorful balloons are illuminated all at once, creating a magical setting of beautiful, glowing colors. Balloon glows will last from 60 to 90 minutes.
Saturday’s festival will include food and craft vendors and a Kids Zone with games, bounce houses and zipline.
More than 100 types of aircraft will be on display at the festival. There will be an aviation fly-in with war birds, military aircraft and commercial aircraft.
Visitors can take a ride in a Huey or Cobra helicopter, and biplane rides will be available from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Formation fly-bys will be take place hourly on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m. with Tiger formation flights through the Gathering of Horses flyover at 4 p.m.
Tethered hot-air balloon rides will start at 5:30 p.m. Saturday, weather permitting, followed by the specialty-shaped balloon set-up at 7:30 and balloon glow at 9 p.m.
If you go
* What: Northwest Georgia Hot Air Balloon & Aviation Festival
* Where: Richard B. Russell Airport, 304 Russell Field Road, Rome, Ga.
* When: 4-10 p.m. Friday, June 28; 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday, June 29
* Admission: $14 adults general admission, $10 children 2-17; tethered balloon rides $20, private tethered balloon ride for two $80
* For more information: www.facebook.com/RomeBalloonFestival