Specials

Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival

PISCATAQUIS HERITAGE
HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL

Second annual Hot Air Balloon Festival takes off this weekend

    DOVER-FOXCROFT — The second annual Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival will be held on Friday, May 30 through Sunday, June 1, being held this year at the Piscataquis Valley Fairgrounds on Fairview Avenue. The festival will take place rain or shine, with balloon liftoffs subject to appropriate weather conditions.

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    INAUGURAL BALLOON FESTIVAL — The first annual Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival was held last year in Dover-Foxcroft, and the second edition of the festival will be May 30-June 1 at the Piscataquis Valley Fairgrounds on Fairview Avenue.

    The Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival is a community driven annual celebration of local talent in arts, trades, crafts, agriculture, non-profit organizations and the opportunities available in the Maine Highlands Region. This festival, founded by the Kiwanis Club of Dover-Foxcroft and the Piscataquis Chamber of Commerce, is a partnership between businesses and community organizations dedicated to providing an event in the Piscataquis Region, rich in traditional values and full of opportunities to share heritage with the goal of stimulating the local economy.

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    INAUGURAL BALLOONS — The inaugural flights of the first annual Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival take off from the Charles A. Chase Junior Memorial Field in Dover-Foxcroft on the evening of June 1, 2013. Last year’s  festival had thousands coming through the gates at the airport. This year the second annual Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival will be held May 30, May 31 and June 1 at the Piscataquis Valley Fairgrounds.

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    In addition to the 14 hot air balloons, there will be food vendors (these are all nonprofit organizations), artisans, tradesmen, trades demonstrations, agricultural displays and sales. There will be entertainment throughout the event along with balloon rides as well as tethered balloon rides for the less adventurous.
    Everyday events at the 2014 Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival include bingo provided by the Dover-Foxcroft American Legion, Ted Walker Chainsaw Carving, walk through balloon, educational tents, artisans and craftsman, agricultural displays, food vendors, fireman’s museum, roaming railroad and helicopter rides.
    Special events for the first day of the Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival on May 30 are 6 a.m. balloon flights from Charles A. Chase Airport, gates opening at the festival at 4 p.m., DJ from 4-5 p.m., 4-9 p.m. tethered balloon rides to benefit Sarah’s House. (weather permitting), the Doug Hoyt Band performing from 5-6:30 p.m., 4–8 p.m. helicopter rides (contact keith@acadianseaplanes.com or 864-5307 for more information), River Bottom Funk from 7-9 p.m. and a balloon glow (weather permitting) from 8-9 p.m.

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    FROM PACKED TO AIR-READY — Crews from Hot Fun Balloons in South Portland demonstrated the procedures for readying a hot air balloon for flight, as they filled the balloon with air and then fired up the burner at the 2013 Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival at the Charles A. Chase Junior Memorial Field in Dover-Foxcroft.

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    On Saturday at the festival will be 6 a.m. balloon flights from Charles A. Chase Airport, 6 a.m.-8 p.m. helicopter rides (contact keith@acadianseaplanes.com or 864-5307 for more information), gates opening at 11 a.m., a DJ from 11 a.m.-5 p.m., noon Birds Acre owl show, sky divers at 1 p.m., Maine story teller and humorist Don Spear from 3-4:30 p.m., 4-9 p.m. tethered balloon rides to benefit Sarah’s House. (weather permitting), Overdrive performing from 5-6:30 p.m., 6-7 p.m. Haus Paradigm Shanghai Belly Dance Theater with Middle Eastern dance (belly dance), fire, props, swords, wings and more, evening balloon flights from the festival grounds at 6 p.m., Octavia performing from 7-9 p.m., a balloon glow (weather permitting) from 8-9 p.m. and the film “The Goonies” under the stars at 9 p.m.
    The events for the final day of the festival will be 6 a.m. balloon flights from Charles A. Chase Airport, 6 a.m.-2 p.m. helicopter rides (contact keith@acadianseaplanes.com or 864-5307 for more information, an antique car show starting at noon as well as a kite workshop starting at 12 p.m. to be following by kite flying and a kite demonstration by Glenn Davidson from 2-4 p.m.
    For more information, please go to www.phhabf.com or find “2nd Annual Piscataquis Heritage Hot Air Balloon Festival” on Facebook.

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