Townsend held its 6th Annual Great Smoky Mountains Hot Air Balloon Festival on Saturday.
With live music and food and craft vendors lined up, and several balloon stations set up, excitement was high when the festival kicked off at 3 p.m.
The festival soon turned into a waiting game as gusts of wind caused several delays in getting the balloons to the sky. Folks gathered under tents and the visitor center’s roof to escape the smothering heat.
For Adam McClinton, it’s all part of the job. During a meet and greet portion of the festival, McClinton’s hot air balloon basket skimmed the ground as the wind blew, while he fielded questions from the small crowd that had gathered around him. At one point, after his basket veered sharply to the left, he asked the inquisitive festival-goers to stand back so as not to get struck by the moving basket.
Several variables can affect whether they feel comfortable putting a balloon into the air, wind is just one component that can keep a balloon grounded.
“Where did I take off, and what the winds are, and where they’re going to take me — that’s the wind component of weather. I also have to care about temperature and obviously storms and stuff like that, so a lot of different things,” McClinton said.
While McClinton manned the balloon, a smaller party-size balloon danced back and forth, tied to a truck to which the hot air balloon was tethered. The small balloon served as a visual representation of the direction of the wind.
McClinton is a third-generation hot-air balloon operator. His grandfather owned a hot air balloon business, and his father learned to pilot them through friends in the hot air balloon community. His father passed the craft on to McClinton and McClinton’s brother. Between the three of them, they have flown balloons all over the U.S. and even in China and Mexico.
McClinton works about seven events a year, but his brother and father work events every weekend through the late spring, summer and fall.
Even after having flown at the world’s biggest hot air balloon festival in Albuquerque, New Mexico, McClinton said that the Great Smoky Mountains Hot Air Balloon Festival was one of his favorites because of the beauty of the surrounding mountains and the fun nature of Townsend.
While adults hunkered down out of the heat, a group of children were delighting in a foam machine. Kids emerged with life-size foam beards and hats.
Festival attendee Luann Willix relaxed in the shade while her husband explored the festival. They traveled to the festival from Franklin, North Carolina to celebrate their 45th wedding anniversary with a balloon ride. Even though there was uncertainty about whether the weather would permit the balloons to go up, Willix said it was all part of the adventure.
Willix said the key to a long marriage is communication and flexibility.
“Each season in your life you work through — when you have kids — and now we’re retired, and so it’s just the two of us again. So it’s a whole new learning process,” Willix said.
She and her husband met through a church youth trip. They had a short courtship, got engaged and were married just six months later.
“It’s been a good 45 years,” Willix said.
After an afternoon full of delays, the balloons finally took to the sky around 7 p.m. Even though some attendees ended up leaving, defeated by the heat, folks seemed to be reinvigorated as the giant balloons lifted off.
It seemed as though the Willix’s would get their anniversary balloon ride after all.
Local News
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