TVER, August 14 (Itar-Tass) — The International Balloon Festival ended in Burashevo, around 152 km northwest of Moscow and 15 km south of Tver, which draw 15 hot air balloons from Russia, Belarus, Lithuania and Ukraine and gathered hundreds of visitors for a two-day show.
Local residents initiated the festival and this idea was widely supported by the Tver region administration, an official from the Burashevo rural settlement administration told Itar-Tass.
Aside from hot air ballooning visitors were able to see parachutists, a paragliding show and an aerobatics team from a local air club and take part in a kiting contest.
All those who mustered up their nerve were able to try a hot air balloon flight.
Small model airplane lovers also had a chance to test their models.
Visitors got an opportunity to admire morning and night hot air ballooning shows and rest and eat at specially organized barbecue areas.
The festival’s organizers noted that balloonists mainly use two types of balloons – hot air and helium filled balloons of different size from a flying armchair to 24-seat baskets. A balloon can fly as high as 4 km.
“It can fly higher, and this is not beyond its capacities, but passengers inside should have special oxygen equipment,” organizers said.
Of late the balloon festivals became very popular in Russia. Such festivals take place in Kungur, the Perm region, Yekaterinburg in the Middle Urals, Ryazan, in the Krasnodar territory, the Yaroslavl region and the Moscow region.
A balloon carrying passengers used hot air was invented by the brothers Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier in Annonay, France, in 1873.
St. Petersburg was the first Russian city to host the All-Russian balloon festival in 1910.