Foggy conditions bring balloon festival back to earth with a bump

Foggy, wet conditions this weekend led to one of the most disappointing Icicle Meets for years, for both pilots and spectators.

On the first weekend of the new year those in the know are treated to a free aerial spectacular, as the skies are filled with colourful hot air balloons.

Last year – the 40th anniversary of the air ballooning community’s annual new year shindig – saw 30 aircraft take to the skies. But that’s nothing compared to 1989, when a whopping 143 balloons ascended from Warren Farm in the Savernake Forest.

This year, a no more than a dozen made it up on Saturday, and none at all braved the ascent on Sunday, although a few crews inflated their crafts and treated themselves, and the crowds, to the spectacle of a tethered flight – a launch of a few feet while the basket remains attached to the ground via a rope.

The perfect conditions for ballooning, as explained to Marlborough News Online by event organiser Peter Bish last year, are clear blue skies and a hard ground. Sadly this year’s conditions were the polar opposite.