The Ruby Mountain Balloon festival grounded due to COVID-19
Scheduled for July 24-26, organizers decided to cancel the three-day festival after “agonizing” over the decision since March, said Donna Engdahl, balloon festival president.
There were hopes in early June that the festival would go on as planned, and Nevada would have advanced to Phase 3 of the reopening stages by the end of July, but an increase in positive COVID-19 cases this month gave the committee “no choice but to make this decision.”
“The COVID situation is just too volatile,” Engdahl said. “The stress of waiting and hoping and planning while not being able to control anything related to COVID is just too great to put off the cancellation decision any longer.”
“We, as the organizers, did not want to be forced to present a sub-par event,” she continued. “In order to adhere to the Nevada mandate of no more than 50 people at a gathering, we were forced to cancel our wonderful Friday night glow in the main city park.”
Maintaining social distancing at an event that draws hundreds of people to the park and at Schuckmann’s Sports Complex in Spring Creek would have been a tremendous challenge because people are “always elbow-to-elbow” at the balloon launches, Engdahl said.
“Balloon festivals are all about pilots and crews interfacing with the public,” she explained. “It’s not a festival if we cannot do that. Seeing beautiful smiles on hundreds of faces is one of the main reasons we have so much fun flying balloons in the first place.”
If the festival were to have taken place as planned, spectators would have been asked to remain off the launch field in Spring Creek during the mass ascensions to keep public gathering numbers under 50.
Additionally, according to Engdahl, pilots were dropping out of the festival due to rising COVID-19 cases in Elko County.
Out of the 21 pilots who had registered, four formally withdrew from the event, and one more was anticipated to withdraw by Thursday.
“Distancing in a balloon gondola is impossible with passengers and a pilot,” Engdahl noted.
Local sponsors, both old and new, were supportive of the decision, she added.
“Our local sponsors are absolutely terrific. They are completely understanding and are planning to be flying with us again in 2021. Elko and Spring Creek are amazingly supportive communities of numerous events,” Engdahl said. “We are very fortunate to live in Elko County.”
Other hot air balloon events such as the Albuquerque Balloon Festival and the Great Reno Balloon Race have also been canceled this year.
Even if health conditions improve and state and federal restrictions are eased by the fall, Engdahl said the festival would not be rescheduled in late September or early October when it used to take place. Instead, it will go forth next year.
“We are planning to present our normal first-rate, top-notch Ruby Mountain Balloon Festival that we know and love on July 23-25, 2021.”
