Chester County takes flight with 17th annual hot air balloon festival

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The skies over Chester County will be full of anything but the ordinary this weekend as the Hot Air Balloon Festival celebrates its 17th anniversary at Willowdale Steeplechase. Rain prevented balloon takeoff on opening day Friday, but spirits remained high.

Through financial headwinds and Covid-19 cancellations, the festival has experienced significant growth since its inception in 1998, increasing from 900 attendees in its first year to an estimated 20,000 spectators at last year’s festival, according to Rick Schimpf, festival director.

Proceeds from the festival’s initial years were used to preserve 90,000 acres of land in Chester. Now, admission fees go to local fire and police departments, as well as the Boy Scouts, Schimpf said.

Originally called the Pennsbury Balloon Festival, the event has evolved to become far more than just hot air balloon rides. On Friday, local vendors and food trucks lined the festival grounds as live music by the Bad Hombres entertained the crowd. Many vendors shared that they were repeat attendees at the festival, including Albie’s Burger Truck, which noted that this was their fourth consecutive year.

Keenya Cain-Wiggins, of Shugar Shack Soul Food, said the idea to bring her business to the festival came to her last year while visiting another vendor. On Friday, she was serving up her “Mother Clucking Chicken Sandwich” and “Slammin’ Salmon” to hungry festival goers.

“Last year, I was leaving Harvest Ridge Winery, and I saw the crowd and saw the balloons, and I said, ‘I have to be there next year,’” Cain-Wiggins said. “So here I am.”

Just beyond the main field of the event, where attendees were spread out on blankets and lawn chairs to watch the ascent, there was a wine and beer garden for adults and a petting zoo and bounce houses for younger attendees.

At the center of all the expansion is Schimpf, the skydiver-turned-ballooner-turned festival director.

He said he has been working with the festival since its inception and now employs the help of his grandchildren and a staff. Running the festival, he said, is like “herding goldfish.”

Beyond Federal Aviation Administration approvals, land permits and vendor signups, Schimpf said the biggest hurdle in organizing the festival is weather.

“Sometimes the balloons can’t stand up because it’s too windy,” he said. “That’s why we have all this other stuff going on, it’s so that you’re not just walking into an open field.”

Despite the festival’s different offerings, the main attraction for many remains the balloons.

Albert Roark, of Oxford, Pennsylvania, shared that he had planned to attend but was unable to do so in 2024. This year, Roark and his friends made the half-hour drive to see the balloons firsthand.

“You know, I wouldn’t get in a hot air balloon myself — fear of heights — but I like watching them from afar,” Roark said. “Beyond that, it’s a nice, cool evening and a good way to spend your Friday night.”

The balloons’ pilots come from across the nation and sometimes the world — Schimf shared that one year, a pilot came all the way from Quebec, Canada.

Tracy Leaver piloted “Jurassic Journey,” her balloon with a dinosaur design. Leaver, from New Jersey, has been coming out for eight years. She got her start in ballooning when she helped a friend with their balloon and fell in love with the experience.

“Being in the sky and flying a balloon is magical,” Leaver said. “I get often asked why I do it, and I do it because I love it. It’s just a wonderful feeling.”

Unfortunately, the threat of rain meant that Leaver and the 12 other pilots present were unable to fly Friday night.

Still, pilots inflated their balloons and lit up the night with a “balloon glow,” using the burners that normally lift them skyward to illuminate their colorful envelopes while remaining grounded.

One balloon even offered short, low and tethered rides to attendees, in which the balloon lifted roughly 100 feet from the ground momentarily while remaining anchored.

William Moore, a first-time attendee, took a trip up and said he had fun, but his only critique was that the balloon did not go higher.

“I like rollercoasters, I’m like, give me everything,” Moore said. “I want to be higher — like, ‘Can we chuck the strings off on the side?'”

With two days still to go, festival goers such as Moore will have another shot at catching a ride or simply enjoying the view as gates reopen at 2 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

As the weekend continues, the festival will feature karate and dog demonstrations, as well as a Sunday car show for Father’s Day.