High River balloon festival takes flight

Dozens of balloons will light up the night sky over High River on Friday.

The Heritage Inn International Balloon Festival has attracted about 20 balloonists to the southern Alberta town this week.

Jamie Kinghorn, one of the organizers, took his first balloon ride from a Calgary park in 1988. He says he was drawn to ballooning because of the "amazing experience."

"Since then, I've learned it's a lot about the people. I meet people from all over the world. I've been all over the world. There's people here from the U.K., from Lithuania, from the United States. It's a great family event."

This is the fourth annual event in High River. The highlight of the festival, a night launch called "the glow," will happen on Friday night from Spitzee Elementary School.

"When we first started out it was about High River and recovery from the flood," Kinghorn said. "But it's since grown in to something much bigger. Now it gives us a platform to show off High River to the rest of the world and show how far we've come from the flood."

Part of the festival includes the Canadian National Hot Air Balloon Championship. The winner will qualify to go on to compete on an international level.