The 2016 Crown of Maine Balloon Festival is happening August 25-28 in Presque Isle!

The Balloon Fest is one of the marquee events in the County every year, and people from all over Maine, New England and Atlantic Canada travel to the Star City to experience the event.

Hot air ballooning is the world’s oldest form of aviation and air travel.  In 1783, the Montgolfier brothers of Annonay, France, made the first successful balloon flight in a balloon filled with smoke from a straw-fed fire.  Today, 232 years later, ballooning has become a recreational and competitive sport.

Aroostook County, Maine shares a place in ballooning history as the home to two famous Transatlantic Balloon Flights.  In 1978, the Double Eagle II launched from Presque Isle and made the first successful crossing of the Atlantic.  In 1984, Joe Kittinger became the first person to make the solo Transatlantic balloon journey, launching from Caribou.  That tradition continued last summer as Jonathan Trappe launched his attempted trans-Atlantic balloon flight using 365 individual helium balloons. Read more about the history of the Crown of Maine Balloon Festival here!

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