Three Bertie Bassetts descend on balloon festival

Three giant inflatable Bertie Bassetts will be among the highlights of a popular hot air balloon festival.

The event is back this weekend at the Racecourse in Northampton.

It was revived in 2023, four years after Billing Aquadrome pulled out of hosting the event.

It will be the first time all three Bassett balloons have appeared together.

The festival was introduced in 1989 by Northampton Borough Council, and became a highlight of the town's events calendar.

Its fortunes turned when the council stopped funding the event in 2008, although new organisers did come in and move it to Billing Aquadrome.

When the Aquadrome pulled out in 2019, it looked as though the balloon had gone up for the festival.

A deal was struck with Showtime Events Group in 2023 to return the show to the Racecourse.

A pre-festival flight of ten balloons on Wednesday paved the way for this year's extravaganza and the show director, David Bailey, said: "We had so many comments last night - people love seeing them."

About thirty balloons are expected this year, including alien, forklift truck and teapot designs.

Weather permitting, there will be the first-ever chance to see three giant inflatable models of the Bertie Bassett sweet man floating over Northampton.

Matt Rate, the chief pilot for Vista Balloon Flights, is hoping to go up. He remembers pestering his parents to follow any hot air balloons, and they eventually organised a ride for him.

He has been hooked ever since.

"Every time you take off, you just go up into the sky and it's so peaceful - any worries you have on the ground will be out of your head for an hour or so while you're flying," he said.

However, the pilots have limited control over which field the craft will land in.

Mr Rate said: "We go and find the landowner to make sure we're allowed to come in and retrieve the balloon.

"We have a bag full of goodies and we give the farmer their tipple of choice."

One of those tasked with retrieving the balloons is Wendy Roussell, who said: "We can have a rough idea in the sense of the wind direction is going that way so we will head vaguely that way.

"It's a bit of an orienteering exercise really."

The festival runs from 16-18 August and includes a brass band, a re-enactment group and trade stands.

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