Tips for the Best Experience at Midfirst Ohio Challenge
Tuesday, July 8, 2008 9:49:04 AM - Middletown Ohio
by Ann Mort
TIPS
FOR THE BEST EXPERIENCE AT MIDFIRST OHIO
CHALLENGE HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL
Arrive early, stay late. Those are the best tips for an
enjoyable time at the MidFirst Ohio Challenge hot air balloon festival July
18-19-20, 2008. The 6th
annual event draws approximately 70,000 visitors over the three days to the 100
acre SmithPark
in downtown Middletown.
From I-75, take exit 32 and follow the signs to the festival site at 500 Tytus Avenue.
On Saturday and Sunday mornings, weather permitting, the
grounds will be open, free, for those who want to watch the competition part of
the event as the 37 balloons launch off-site and attempt to fly into the Hook
Field airport to drop a marker on a designated target. The American Legion will
sell breakfast foods.
When the festival is officially open, 4 to 10:30 pm on
Friday, Noon to 10:30 on Saturday and Noon to 8 on Sunday, there are many
activities to keep everyone busy and entertained. Admission during festival
hours is $5 per carload or $2 per adult walk-in (children free with adult).
While there are many handicap parking spaces, they fill up fast. An on-site
golf-cart shuttle will roam the grounds to assist guests who find it difficult
to walk.
Since almost everybody wants to be there for the evening
launches when the colorful balloons are inflated and take to the air from the airport/SmithPark site, everybody seems to try to
enter the gates at once.Organizers
suggest guests plan to arrive by mid-afternoon and stay for an evening concert
to avoid traffic snarls. And, inside SmithPark is the very best
location to enjoy the balloons where Rob Otto the on-site announcer shares
tidbits about the individual balloons and the pilots.
To attract people to be on-site longer and to provide a full
festival experience when the balloons are delayed or cannot fly, there are
entertainment options, including Team Fastrax Skydivers, a carnival, arts &
crafts, musical concerts and more.
A complete schedule is available at www.MidFirstOhioChallenge.com.
Food vendors will be ready to serve up everything from pork chops and hot dogs
to the after dinner sweet by Graeter's Ice Cream.
New this year, is BalloonSchool. Several pilots
and their crew chiefs will share their love of the sport with anybody who
visits the sessions.
Also new this year is the opportunity to take a tethered
balloon ride ($10 for adults, $5 for kids) during the evening hours. The
balloon is tethered to the ground with a very strong rope and riders go up the
length of the rope with the pilot and then descend back to the earth. Tethered
rides are a recommended first experience and certainly more affordable than the
usual $200 or more for a full, untethered hot air balloon ride.
Also available for those who want a bird's eye view,
helicopter rides are available during the event for $40 per person.
As always, those in the neighborhood - within a 15 miles radius
around Middletown- can encourage a balloon pilot to land or take off from their
property by spreading a common bed sheet out on the ground in a clear space
free of electrical lines or trees obstructing the zone. Pilots watch for those
signals that they are welcome to use that space.
