2012 Saga International Balloon Fiesta

It was on June 4, 1783 that the Montgolfier brothers from France succeeded in publicly flying their hot-air balloon for the first time in history. In that same year on November 21, Jean Francois Pilatre de Rozier became the first human to fly in a balloon. Jacques Charles, another Frenchman, flew a hydrogen-gas balloon on December 1. In this way, man’s path to the sky had been opened.

After that, history saw the invention of the airship and the airplane. As a result, the role of the balloon as a means transportation ended, but ballooning came to be recognized as a sport. In the late 19th and early 20th century, ballooning boomed in popularity..

Until the middle of the 20th century, gas balloons, rather than hot-air ones, had been most popular, as a way to keep hot air in the balloon envelope had yet to be developed. Furthermore, flying a gas balloon proved very expensive, which kept ordinary citizens from participating in the sport.

After World War II, thanks to the development of synthetic fibers and the use of propane gas, Edward Yost succeeded in flying to an altitude of 9,300 ft (nearly 3,000m) in a hot-air balloon. Since then, great advances have been made in ballooning and it has become increasingly popular all over the world as a sky sport.

The first balloon used in Japan was in the Civil War in 1877, when several students of the Marine Corps school built a gas balloon and flew it up in the sky over Tokyo. Japanese balloons were used primarily for military purposes until the end of the World War II. One of the most well-known was the “Fire Balloon”, which dropped bombs on the US.

On September 27, 1973, the first Japanese hot-air balloon named ‘Ikaros’ flew across the sky of Hokkaido, starting the ballooning boom in our country. It was made jointly by a team from Kyoto called the ‘Ikaros Shoten Group’ and by the exploring circle of Hokkaido University.

In September 1973, the Japan Hot-air Ballooning Federation was established, which was renamed the ‘Japan Ballooning Federation’ in 1975. This organization has been leading our country’s ballooning ever since. Grounds fit for ballooning have been found all over Japan and many various competitions and festivals have come to be held.

It was in 1980 that the first International Balloon Fiesta was held in Saga. Since then it has been held every year. Today it attracts more than 800,000 spectators from all over Japan and is said to be the biggest sky event in Asia. In 1989, Saga hosted the first ever International Hot-air Ballooning Championships.