Above: A hot air balloon in Jeffersonville's 2016 Festival of Balloons. Photo by Gabriel Espinosa.
Gabriel Espinosa took this shot of a hot air balloon rising into the sky at the first annual Jeffersonville Festival of Balloons, which was held in the Sullivan County village on Saturday, Oct. 1 and Sunday, Oct. 2.
The festival hosted about six hot air balloons in a field behind an auto dealership. This year was the first year that the festival was held, and it came together in a rather happenstance way, according to the Times Herald-Record:
Jeffersonville was going for the wow factor when its JEMS (Jeffersonville Enhances More of Sullivan) committee decided to host a Festival of Balloons on Saturday.
The idea for a balloon festival began more than a year ago, when JEMS member Susan Bodenstein found out that a Grahamsville man often flew his hot air balloon in the area. She met pilot Glenn Horton and talked about his ballooning, and before he knew it, he was enlisted to help plan a festival.
“I talked to him and he thought it was crazy, and here we are,” Bodenstein said.
See more of Espinosa's photos of the hot air balloons in this photo album on Facebook.
Below: A video of the Festival of Balloons by Gabriel Espinosa and Logan Dunn.
