2008
We have got a ‘spooky’ theme lined up for this year with Darth Vader, Nightmare House and The Little Pirate.
Darth Vader and Nightmare House are brand new and have only flown once before at Albuquerque in October.
Darth Vader is visiting from Belgium with his pilot Michel Lambert. Michel is a huge Star Wars fan, so much so, that he has arranged for the New Zealand Star Wars Fan Club to provide ‘Storm Troopers’ to assist him. His has even fashioned his balloon burner to the shape of a laser! When Darth Vader was being created, only 3 people at the assembly factory knew the final shape. The rest of the factory divisions were assigned small portions of the balloon to make, thus keeping the final outcome a total secret.
The Nightmare House is piloted by Eduardo de Melo from Brazil. You may remember Eduardo who bought The Scarecrow balloon to the 2005 Event.
The Nightmare House is proudly brought to the Festival by WEL Energy Trust and we thank them for their continued support of the Event.
The Little Pirate is Piloted by Jeff Lansdown from Knoxville, Tennesse in the USA. He has a Commercial Hot Air Balloon company in American and has has been flying fo 25 years.
