The iconic Bristol Balloon Fiesta returned for its 47th year in 2025 and was again held amongst the picturesque rolling hills of the Ashton Court estate near Bristol. This free to attend and not-for-profit event is held to celebrate the city of Bristol with its heritage links to the hot air ballooning community and has become a well sought after event by all members of the public, whether from Bristol or from around the globe.
Held from 8th to 10th of August the event drew large crowd numbers to witness the spectacle of the mass balloon launches and the captivating world-famous night glows where, on Friday and Saturday night, 25 balloons were inflated and expertly choreographed to light their burners in time to the BBC Soundtracked music.
In the lead up to the event this year the weather was looking very promising for the balloon launches, and this indeed was the case for the majority of the weekend with a mass launch of 76 balloons taking place on Friday morning. The wind direction took them across part of the city, to the delight of the attending crowds and city residents, even though the weather was a bit cloudy and grey. For this year, a unique ‘Flight Control‘ attraction was added which, in partnership with Great Western Railway, enabled people to track the balloon flights and their landing locations as the balloon pilots updated them.
Once the excitement of the mass launch had passed, it was then the turn of the ballooning teams, MJ Ballooning and Bristol Balloon Collectors, together with a number of private balloons, to perform some balloon tethering, which included a number of old special shapes such as Phillips Light Bulb which only arrived in the country the day before.
Unfortunately, during the day the winds increased which meant that it was not safe for a Friday evening launch.
Saturday was again promising in the morning with the previously predicted wind speeds having reduced significantly enough for another mass launch of balloons, with a similar number to Friday taking to the Bristol skies and again flying across the city to the Keynsham area. Sadly, again the wind speed increased not long after the launch to prevent any more launches later in the day. Beyond the balloons, the extensive event programme spanned across acres of the countryside estate, offering entertainment, activities, food and drink, trade stands, and exhibitions, with plenty of arena activity from the Peter Powell Stunt Kite, Police Dogs demonstration and The Rockets motorcycle display team, plus a number of flypasts from a Hawker Hurricane of the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
By complete contrast, the closing day awoke to clear skies and near perfect conditions, so for the third morning in row another mass launch of 80 balloons was able to take place, again flying across the city to the same Keynsham area as the day previously.
Then followed a very busy day of balloon tethering with yet more old special shape balloons such as Thomas the Tank Engine, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Snow White provided by MJ Ballooning and Bristol Balloon Collectors alongside the arena demonstrations. In a change to the Saturday the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight flypast featured an iconic Supermarine Spitfire with its distinctive sounds of the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.
To finish off the event, an evening mass launch was made with another 70+ balloons lifting into the Bristol skies with the final ones, the distinctive orange segment shaped Cameron Orange-120 G-CDXW and the 143 foot tall Aerostar XP-Dragon N7143J ‘Oggy the Dragon’ which was attending the event from the USA, both flying low out of the arena.
South West Aviation Photographers would like to thank the fiesta organising team, led by Ben Hardy, the team at AmbitiousPR, and the balloon teams for accommodating us and providing access.
Report by Gary Morris with images from Kev Slade and Matt Sudol.
© South West Aviation Photographers 2025