(MENAFN- The Peninsula) By Joelyn Baluyut | The Peninsula
Enjoy the cold weather while watching the hot air balloons go up, up and away as the second Qatar Balloon Festival has been officially opened yesterday at Aspire Park.
The opening ceremony was led by Organising Committee Chairman sheikh Abdulrahaman bin Hassan Al Thani and Fusion technology Managing Partner Capt Hassan Al Mousawi. A ribbon-cutting and the banging of a gong signaling the start of the festival was conducted below the pink streak sky.
Capt Hassan Al Mousawi told The Peninsula that this year's edition has an engagement with the public.“The public can experience to be in-flight this year. Our strategy partner, Qatar Tourism and other partners suggested to involve the public to experience the flight. What we did is to put up special promotional price for 480 tickets and they were also sold out in a week,” he said.
He added:“We are also proud that we will have maiden flights of four locally sponsored balloons in Qatar, one of them is Vodafone. That balloon is the biggest that's going to be operating in Qatar and it can carry up to 19 passengers. We have Qatar balloon which has Qatar's name on it, and we have another balloon co-organiser, Fusion Technology, and Doha Festival City, which is one of our sponsor. They have a branded balloon.”
Expect a bigger, brighter and amusing second edition as the skies of Aspire will be dotted with colourful 40 hot air balloons which will run until December 18. Among the activities include violin performance; dancing, mascot, magic, DJ, band, and kids shows. Food kiosks and trucks, and Children's outdoor inflatable bouncers are also present. On its first day, a sea of people has been noted as they witness the inflating of the hot air balloon, and various performances.
First-time participant, Capt. Alan Hall said:“I'm very pleased to be here, it's not flyable in the UK because of the weather, and it looks it's going to be very good in Qatar.” Hall has been piloting commercially for 25 years.
And great news to those who didn't get a chance to experience the in-flight during the festival, Capt. Al Mousawi revealed that they will continue flying even after the event.“Our season is up to end of March and beginning of April 2022 so there will be opportunity for those who missed flying during the festival to continue flying with us,” he added.
The 10-day festival features special shaped hot air balloons including a frog, bear, tiger, fox, dog, clown and even a ship. It is open from 4pm to 10pm, a night glow between 6pm to 7.30pm will also take place during the stretch of the edition.
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