It
was February 14 and everyone is thinking about Valentines, but I have other
event in mind. This is the weekend where me and my sister will be going to
Pampanga to watch the 19th Hot Air Balloon Festival. We intend to
watch the festival on the morning of February 15 (Sunday), but we already went
to Pampanga on Saturday to avoid the early commute of going to Clark, Pampanga.
We
arrived at Dau Terminal at around 3 in the afternoon. After checking-in at our
hotel we decided to go to Clark, the venue of the festival, to buy already the
tickets for tomorrow morning. During the ride going to Clark, you can already
see some exhibitions of planes at the sky. I am not sure if these are the
remote-controlled planes that we saw the first time we went to watch the Hot
Air Balloon Festival last 2011. Tickets can be bought at the entrance of the event at Php 300.00, and since the ticket is generic for the 4-day event there are no worries to buy the ticket in advance. It was already getting dark and from outside the field we saw one hot air balloon already in the sky and other balloons already getting ready to fly.
On
Sunday morning, we left at quarter to five since the event will start at
five-thirty. It was hard getting to the venue as there are only few PUVs going
inside the Clark Airfield due to the traffic caused by the event. We hired a
tricycle to bring us to the main gate of the airfield just to be in time for
the festival. At the gate we walked for less than a kilometer to get to the
entrance.
The
place was already full of people when we arrived. It was already hard to get a
good spot to have a full view of the balloons. After squeezing and bumping from
a lot of people we managed to get a good location to see the balloons as they
are getting started to fire up. As the balloons are still getting ready,
paragliders are dropped from the sky together with the Philippine flag, which
is known as the flag drop. A flag drop and the singing of the national anthem
signals the start of the event.
After
several minutes of waiting, a dog shaped hot air balloon started to lift up.
There was a loud cheer from the crowd as the dog-shaped balloon rises. The
other balloons soon followed to lift up. The crowd is very enthusiastic to see
the different shaped balloons like the farm house, devil, octopus, elephant,
shoe house, a face of a boy and a girl and Van Gogh. The sunrise serves as a
beautiful backdrop as the hot air balloons stayed in the air for thirty to
forty-five minutes.
Aside
from the hot-air balloons other attractions at the festival are the different
airplanes, race cars, exhibitions of remote-controlled planes, paragliders and
the sky full of kites. There are also live band performances at the stage to
keep everyone entertained.
Food
and souvenirs are also available at the venue, so there are no worries for breakfast
and lunch. There is also a booth of the Medical City, where they give free
medicines for those who might feel sick during the event.
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