Fiesta City
8th - 10th August 2025
Bristol International Balloon Fiesta
Friday 8 – Sunday 10 August
The iconic Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is a free to attend, three-day event that celebrates the city and its heritage links to the remarkable world of hot air ballooning.
For the 8-10 August, the rolling hills of Ashton Court on the outskirts of the city of Bristol are home to a temporary playground of entertainment, and a stage set ready and waiting for over 100 hot air balloons to take flight.
At the heart of the experience of this unique event, is a game of chance – will these feats of engineering take flight. In the chance that they don’t fly the Fiesta has refocussed attention to introduce multiple opportunities for visitors to still experience the magic of ballooning regardless.
In the chance that they do, visitors are given a spectacle like no other. The compact central arena becomes awash with a rainbow of colour at dawn for a peaceful morning song to awaken the city, and at dusk to mark the closing of the day and the start of evening celebrations.
On Friday and Saturday, visitors stay beyond nightfall to experience the event’s infamous Night Glows. After dark, dozens of hot air balloons inflate, and use their burners to glow in time to a soundtrack of inspiring music to bring the party atmosphere and bring the crowd of spectators to their feet.
SCHOOLS TETHER ROADSHOW
THROUGHOUT JULY
This year we brought balloons to schools across the city and wider region, tethering balloons in school fields and large playgrounds and delivering digital schools activity packs to promote this magical sport to future engineers and pilots.
The 2025 programme ran from 1 July until the end of the summer term.
Back in April, Bristol schools were invited to put their school forward for a balloon visit. Over 400 applications were received. Eight schools were selected from across North, South, East and West Bristol, and over 3000 pupils got to witness this enchanting sport.
A huge thank you must go to the volunteers that dedicated over 100 hours to deliver this programme.
FLIGHT CONTROL
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH GWR
A new attraction for 2025, Flight Control, in partnership with GWR, will enable visitors to see where the balloons land after taking off from the launch field.
Following each flight, a map will be populated with all the landing locations, highlighting the reach of the event beyond Ashton Court Estate.
Flight Control will be featured on a big screen on the edge of the arena, not only showcasing where the balloons land, but the distances flown, number of landings, average flight time and total flight time across the weekend.
Visitors can also view Flight Control by visiting this link.
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