A commemorative book to celebrate the unique marriage between a city and its balloons

Bristol without balloons would be like London without the red buses, Laurel without Hardy, Morecambe without Wise... You get the idea. Historically there is no particular connection between the two, although it might have turned out differently if that other Bristol icon, young Isambard Kingdom Brunel, had not been so distracted with his fancy bridge work, railways and transatlantic steamships and had instead pushed on with the great iron steam-balloon. But it was never to be and even though balloons were common enough in Victorian times there are no records of Brunel ever turning his gaze skywards.

During the 1970s, with so many balloonists in one city it was inevitable that they would want to fly together and so in 1979 the first of the Bristol International Balloon Fiestas took place with the support of the Bristol Junior Chamber. A fairly modest affair to begin with, this colourful spectacle has gone on to captivate balloonists and spectators alike to the extent that it is now one of the largest outdoor events in Europe. Thirty Fiestas later and the Bristol Junior Chamber has commissioned ‘Bristol and Ballooning’, a commemorative book to celebrate the unique marriage between a city and its balloons.