Hot air balloons dot Clark skies as 4-day festival starts

SKY SHOW Hot air balloons in different shapes, colors and designs are featured in this year’s staging of the Philippine Hot Air Balloon Fiesta at Clark Freeport in Pampanga. —ALLAN MACATUNO

CLARK FREEPORT—A death-defying sequence of acrobatic stunts and handstands performed by two women while strapped to their plane’s wings stunned spectators during the opening of this year’s Philippine International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta (PIHABF) here on Thursday.

The crowd cheered for two members of the British Aerosuperbatics Wingwalkers who performed the stunts on two Stearman biplanes while these undertook loops, rolls, stall turns and inverted flights.

22nd edition

The acrobatic move was one of the highlights of the festival, which is now on its 22nd edition.

Aerosuperbatics Wingwalkers, who consider themselves “the world’s only aerobatic formation wing walking team,” performed for the first time in the Philippines, according to Joy Roa, event director and head of PIHABF organizing committee.

“It is a spectacular aerial show not to be missed,” Roa said.

Most people came for the event’s annual spectacle of hot air balloons featuring movie characters Captain Jack Sparrow of Pirates of the Caribbean and Master Yoda of Star Wars.

Boosting tourism

Dubbed as the longest-running sports aviation event in Asia, the festival has been “annually boosting tourism in Clark and the whole Pampanga,” Roa said.

Twenty-six colorful hot air balloons from all over the world kicked off the four-day festivities with early morning flights at 6 a.m.

The skies were dotted with balloons shaped as the Happy Heart, a Matryoshka Russian doll, a Queen’s guard, a giant strawberry, Morris the Donkey, Bruno the Clown, and Pepe the Hedgehog.

The festival features other flying activities, including paragliding, skydiving, aerobatic exhibitions, formation flights, balloon bursting competitions and kite flying.

Apart from showcasing aerial shows, the festival aims to be a platform for exchange of cultures among nations, Roa said.

In the evenings, musical artists from different countries would perform side-by-side with local talents at the One World Music Cultural Exchange Concert.

‘Ideal location’

“We had a great start with the parachuting and the Philippine flag-carrying paraglider,” said Dr. John Grubbstrom, a Swedish pilot and president of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, referring to the ceremonial flag jump while the crowd sang the national anthem.

Grubbstrom said his group had been scouting for a venue for an international aeronautics competition and had considered the Omni Aviation Center here.

“This is an ideal location, considering the logistics and warm hospitality of the people around here,” he told the Inquirer.

The first hot air balloon festival was held in 1994 at the height of Mount Pinatubo’s lahar onslaught to help boost the local economy, particularly in Central Luzon.