{"id":242313,"date":"2026-07-13T15:52:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242313\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T15:52:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T15:52:47","slug":"photos-erie-takes-flight-for-their-annual-hot-air-balloon-festival-colorado-hometown-weekly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/242313\/","title":{"rendered":"Photos: Erie takes flight for their annual Hot Air Balloon festival \u2013 Colorado Hometown Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pilot<\/p>\n

Pilot David Bowling ignites the burners to inflate The Wind Whisperer during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Spectators<\/p>\n

Spectators point toward the sky during the Erie Balloon Festival on Saturday. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Passengers<\/p>\n

Passengers wave as they take flight during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Spectators<\/p>\n

Spectators watch hot air balloons inflate during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A hot air balloon takes flight into the sunrise during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on Saturday. The festival continues from Friday through Sunday. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Kristy<\/p>\n

Kristy Shine, right, takes photos of balloons during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Pilot<\/p>\n

Pilot Ben Bookman inflates the hot air balloon with the burners during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Crew<\/p>\n

Crew prepare to attach the parachute vent to the balloon Sapphire Dream during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Fire<\/p>\n

Fire from a burner inflates the balloon, Bunting, during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Balloons<\/p>\n

Balloons take off from a field near Erie High School during the Erie Balloon Festival on Saturday. The festival began Friday and was set to run into Sunday. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Wind Whisperer takes flight as crew wave it off during the Erie Balloon Festival on Saturday. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Spectators<\/p>\n

Spectators watch balloons in the sky from their front porch during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Shadows<\/p>\n

Shadows cast on the parachute vent as a crew inflates the balloon, Sapphire Dream, during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Spectators<\/p>\n

Spectators watch and take photos as balloons prepare to take flight during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Jenna<\/p>\n

Jenna Battillo watches balloons inflate during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Hot air balloon, Wonderland, takes flight during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A crew member holds on to a tether as the balloon, Bunting, inflates during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

\"Crew<\/p>\n

Crew members hold on to tethers as a balloon deflates after a landing during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Show Caption<\/p>\n

1 of 18<\/p>\n

Pilot David Bowling ignites the burners to inflate The Wind Whisperer during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie on July 11, 2026. (Joel Solis\/Staff Photographer)\n<\/p>\n

Expand<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pilot David Bowling ignites the burners to inflate The Wind Whisperer during the Erie Balloon festival in Erie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242314,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[1676,136,138,137,1677,241,139,727],"class_list":["post-242313","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-erie","tag-colorado","tag-erie","tag-erie-headlines","tag-erie-news","tag-front-range","tag-latest-headlines","tag-news","tag-photos-and-videos"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242313","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242313"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242313\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}