This year, Champaign County for the very first time, hosted a balloon festival that was supposed to feature balloon launches, tethered balloon rides, balloon glows, carnival rides, and food vendors.
What the festival actually had was a few carnival rides that were more or less entertaining, outrageous prices, and a severe lack of options when it came to food. With no balloons of any kind to be found.
On top of that, the parking for the festival was uncoordinated and inconsistent. The organizers of the event advertised that if needed, there would be overflow parking in the B1 and B parking lots of the Parkland campus.
However, they also advertised that the Parkland Way entrance would be closed off due to the festival using it. This rendered the overflow parking unreachable from certain entrances.
People who came in through the Bradley or Duncan entrances saw these barricades and began to park in the overflow parking. This allowed some to walk straight to the festival having avoided $10 entry fee.
Meanwhile, people who came in the intended, but not specified way, had to pay $10 per person to even enter the festival.
When I went to the festival around 11:30 on Saturday, there were four food vendors, a taco truck, a truck that grilled various foods, a Jersey Mikes Sub tent, and an ice cream truck. There were also carnival food stations in the actual carnival area.
There have been complaints made by other people that on Saturday night, there was only one food vendor available.
Mike Merrick commented on a post on the Facebook page “Spotted in Chambana” and said, “Stood in line for an hour and a half. Even the guy cooking said it would be nice if there were more food vendors.”
While the original plan for the festival was to have these events and rides surrounding hot air balloons, these events were only happening for a very small portion of the festival. Aside from that, the schedule for these events was incredibly hard to find. Even on the festival’s website, you had to dig for information on the events.
Because of this lack of information and poor advertising, many people who came to the festival during the day on Saturday were disappointed to find that not only were there no hot air balloon rides available, but balloons were nowhere to be found.
I’m not the only person who was unhappy with the festival. Many people who attended the festival had lots to say about what exactly was so frustrating. Some were about the parking and lack of information on the website, but many comments discussed how the people running the event continued to tease the crowd with false countdowns when they knew the weather conditions were unfit to launch the balloons.
While I, and many of the festival attendees, understand that weather is an important deciding factor as to whether or not the balloons will be safe to launch, it doesn’t change the fact that a lot of the information about the festival was difficult to find and the organizers of the event were aware of the predicted weather forecast days leading up to the event. They could have released updated information ahead of time if it seemed the weather would be unsuitable.
The only redeeming qualities about the fair were that it provided small businesses the opportunity to get a little bit of publicity, proceeds from the festival went to children’s charities (although they could’ve had more money had their parking been clearer), and the carnival.
Featuring a Ferris wheel, a flying swings machine, a bouncy house, a scrambler, and some other carnival rides, these rides, while a little overpriced (more than usual), were a fun addition to the festival and gave attendees some entertainment.
As this was only the first annual balloon festival for Champaign County, one can only hope that the criticism brought forth from this article and from attendees at the festival, will help better prepare the organizers for next year.
