Starting your drive to the Fiesta before sunrise will having you thinking about breakfast but waiting until you arrive at the Fiesta is worth the wait because countless vendors provide coffee, hot chocolate, breakfast burritos and Mexican pastry and other morning treats to help you enjoy the show on a full tummy.

If dawn is too early for you, plan to catch the morning balloon events as late as 10:00 a.m. or catch the Fiesta evening balloon glows as late as 8:00 p.m.

According to the Santa Fe Insiders’ Guide, “The nine-day festival includes mass ascensions held on the four week end mornings and gala events that fill the sky with balloons of every shape, size and color.”

Because of their popular attraction, they have created a ”special-shape mass ascension and a balloon glow rodeo.”  Kids of all ages enjoy the dinosaurs and dragons, flying shoes and bottles, fantasy castles and a cow jumping over the moon delight the audience during each Fiesta.

This event is a world-renowned attraction with an estimated 2010 attendance of 800,000 (621,000 in 2008).

In addition to the balloons, the Fiesta presents live music, including jazz, country-western and mariachi!  There is something for everyone.

Guests can walk the field and are part of the action.  Hundreds of thousands are awestruck by the spectacular beauty of hot air balloons filling the big blue New Mexico sky. 

You need to experience the sound of hundreds of burners simultaneously turning the Park into a huge lighted Christmas tree of colorful balloons.  Only those who attend can experience the massive joy.

From its modest beginnings in 1972 with 13 balloons launching from a shopping mall parking lot, the Balloon Fiesta has grown to multiple events launching year-round at the custom-designed, 365-acre Balloon Fiesta Park.

With 700 balloons, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta is the largest ballooning event on earth, the most photographed event on earth, and the largest annual international event held in the United States.

The official event begins on October 2^nd, but on Friday October 1, students from 58 schools throughout Albuquerque and Rio Rancho will witness the eighth annual Albuquerque Aloft on the day before the first mass ascension of the 39^th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta “Earth, Wind and Flyers.”

This is a great way to kick off the beginning of the nine days of Balloon Fiesta.  More than 100 Balloon Fiesta registered pilots and their colorful balloons have signed up to launch hot air balloons from selected school grounds.  The pilots will launch simultaneously in a 7:25 a.m. launch coordinated by KKOB AM Radio, the “official voice of Balloon Fiesta.

Parents, students and teachers alike will have the opportunity to meet the pilots and crew, and experience the excitement of watching and learning how a balloon flies. 

Albuquerque Aloft is the only Balloon Fiesta event in which balloons launch from pre-designated sites outside of Balloon Fiesta Park.  Balloonists at the schools may elect to fly from the campus or may remain at the school site. 

Attending the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta event is another glimpse of how New Mexico preserves its historical image of being "The Land of Enchantment.”