It was my first time to attend the Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival. This was their 21st Year, and based on rumors, this was the last festival ever so I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see the sky filled with colorful hot air balloons.
The speakers at the event however announced that this is not their last year. I guess it was just a tactic to get everyone interested and attend the festival. Well, it definitely worked.
We left Manila at 1:30am and arrived at Clark Pampanga at almost 5:00am. The supposed 2 hour drive was impossible as hundreds of cars along us were headed to the festival as well. But thankfully we arrived at the event by dawn.
However, another traffic upon us was the ticket lines. We didn’t purchased our tickets online as this was actually a sudden trip that we planned a few days prior. Gratefully the on-site ticket line was moving way faster compared to the line where attendees had to validate their online purchased tickets. I guess a lot of people had the same idea: purchase the tickets online so we don’t have to worry about lining up and buying tickets on the day of the event. But ooops, the validation line was pretty loooong. By the way, the General Admission ticket was sold for Php 350 per person.
Per WikiPedia, the approximate visitors during the festival is 60,000. That’s a big number. I only had an estimate of 10,000.
Many visitors brought with them, picnic mats and tents so these mainly consumed the ground space at the OMNI Aviation Complex in Clark Field. We squeezed our way through the crowd and managed to find a spot in between the mats and tents.
The festival started with the Twinz Paramotor Light Show by Anthony & Timothy Green. I didn’t really see the aircraft take off but it was nice to witness all the sky divers jump off the plane and fill the sky with their vibrant parachutes. They were literally as small as a dot which eventually got bigger and bigger when they got closer to the ground.
After the skydiver’s jump, the hot air balloons were gradually filled with air. We waited patiently for each balloon to rise from the ground. I believe there were at least 20 different hot air balloons that took off that morning. My fave would have to be the clown and pink elephant.
It gave the impression that the sky had an emoji and it’s smiling down on us.
After the hot air balloons were in the sky, we decided to grab some food for breakfast. So we made our way to food stalls but the crowd was just excessively large so we agreed to just leave the event and eat somewhere else. With hungry bellies and at 7:30am, we made our way for the exit. Along with thousands of people who also decided to leave the event. At the exit, you need to have your wrists stamped should you want to come back at any point of the event. Downside thing was they only had one staff assigned at the exit. So here he is, poor Mister, being flooded with wrists after wrists.
When we finally got our wrists stamped, we made our way to the car park. Which took almost 3 hours to get to. We had no idea why the crowd headed to the car-park was not moving. We were trapped in the open field the whole morning. We didn’t want to be all cuddled up with the crowd so we took a break in the open field…
wherein of course we consumed the rest of the hour for a photo shoot! Hahah. This was the highlight among the ladies.
Now after this experience, I ask myself, will I attend the Hot Air Balloon Festival again next year? Hmm, yes. If they improve their strategies for crowd control. Next year, they should have everyone get stamped upon entry. Also if possible, locate the event to a much larger venue and have at least 5 exits, not just 1.
Last question to myself: Was it worth it the money and effort? Absolutely. Despite spending more time in line at the exit, it was a first and was definitely noteworthy. Thank you Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Festival for the experience and for my Instagram worthy photos 😛
Away you go,
