The largest hot-air balloon festival in Europe has been held over this past weekend at Ashton Court, England.  Approximately 130 balloons took part in the festival, which is free for visitors to attend (apart from a car parking charge).  Over the four days it was estimated that 500,000 people attended the event.   The first fiesta was held in 1979.
Large-scale events which run over a number of days can bring considerable economic benefits to an area with overnight accommodation spend and secondary spend on food and retail.  Importantly, a successful event can help to establish the ‘identity’ of a destination through the regional, national and international media.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 14th, 2006 at 8:22 am and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.