Monroe County is now a major sponsor of the balloon festival and the Monroe County Airport in Madisonville, is our new larger location. This location will allow us to grow for many years to come!
Enjoy balloon rides, live music, food, games, an inflatable Kid’s Zone and much more all while supporting the Bovs & Girls Club of Monroe County. The two-day Balloon Festival begins on Saturday, August 30th and runs through Sunday, August 31st, from 4pm – 10pm. The finale each night will be a Balloon Glow set to music with colorful hot air balloons beginning at dusk.
We have some of the most talented balloon pilots in the country excited to entertain the community. We invite everyone to come out and join in the celebration!”
Skip and Toni have been involved in ballooning since 2009, first as a private pilot flying for fun and then as a commercial pilot.
In 2010, they formed Bluff City Balloon to give others the fun and enjoyment of a private hot air balloon ride. They are one of only 6 balloons in the country specially outfitted to take up folks with any special needs. Giving and sharing is a way of life for the Durhams, they are excited to be a part of the festival.
Mischief is 120,000 square foot, 9 stories tall, birthday is 2019. Basket has a door handicap accessible. I asked for the height in feet, and he said, “90 feet? Never been asked and that is not part of the specs.”
Marshall Gower, 32, is an Asset Reliability Leader at Constellium, where he ensures the efficiency and reliability of the company’s assets. He is married to Tesa with two daughters Sadie and Emma and balances his professional career with his passion for aviation.
In June 2021, Marshall earned his fixed-wing pilot’s license, and in 2023, he furthered
his aviation credentials with a lighter-than- air license.
Al Smith began his love of hot air ballooning more than 30 years ago by crewing with a local balloon pilot. This 
quickly evolved into flight training and earning his private pilot certificate and soon after his commercial pilot certificate.
Since his early days of ballooning Al has been involved in his local balloon event, the Hot Air Jubilee, in Jackson Michigan. Going on to become the event Balloonmeister for many years.
Al attends many balloon events in a radius of the Mid-Michigan area, and has attended the grand daddy of balloon events, Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, for the past 23 years. A special memory was a flight during tbe Bay Harbor Balloon Event near Petosky MI when the balloons were able to make a crossing of Little Traverse Bay with spectacular views of Lake Michigan.
When not playing with hot air balloons, Al is also part of the inflation team and flight management crew for the helium filled balloons taking part in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Look for Al out in front of one of the 16 large character balloons getting wind readings at each intersection along the parade route.
Tabatha Rainwater flies “π in the sky” hot air balloon.
She will be joining us from Knoxville, Tennessee. Go Vols! Fun fact: Tabatha has previously attended this event with her family before becoming a hot air balloon pilot!
Mike has owned and operated a successful small ride operation since 1992 to present.
He has been a commercial hot air balloon pilot for Bryan Foods, Sara Lee, Mossy Oak and Mississippi Printng. He has flown for several high-profile passengers including, President Bill Clinton, Al Gore,
Brooks and Dunn, 38 Special and User.
He has also been a pilot for the Make-A-Wish foundation. He was a LTA pilot for charity fundraiser for Palmer Home for Children and Peavey Electronics Orphan relief project.
In 2016 he was the BFA Rookie of the Year. Mike is the organizer and speaker for Canton Mississippi Hot Air Balloon Safety Seminar from 2018 to present.
He is the Balloon Meister for Grenada Lake Thunder on Water and Greenville Mississippi Aviation Days from 2018 to present.
He is the Competition Director and assist the Balloon Meister for the Mississippi Balloon Championship.
He has 2700+ hours as pilot of command of Hot Air Balloons.
Chuck has been ballooning for close to 35 years with almost 1,500 hours in the air. He is the pilot for Yellow Bird. His wife Cindyenjoys the balloon as much as he does. Their greatest pleasure with ballooning is all the excitement people have watching them and all of the hearts they have touched over the years.
John Hitron has been flying hot air balloons since 1978. When my wife took her first ride in 1977 she landed and screamed “we gotta get one!” Of course I said “ sure”. She bought me a ride for Christmas and when I landed I said “we gotta get one!’ We bought our first balloon that night. My first ride cost $100, my second ride was $9000. I have flown at events around the country since.
I have been a member of the BFA and two term president of the Balloon Society of Kentucky. I am also the recipient of the “Ed Yost Master Pilot Award” given by the BFA. Most notable winnings from balloon events are a $10,000 and a new car. I am currently instructing my youngest daughter for her own pilot’s certificate.
Bill Cunningham started ballooning 44 years ago, not knowing any better, thought he could get rich and have fun doing it. He has met exactly half of those goals.
Ballooning may not be a great way to get rich, but it’s certainly a great way to make memo- ries. Bill has flown in 40 states plus Mexico and Canada,
and he has logged over 2,300 hours in the air. He says it’s difficult to pick a favorite flight because all these places are beautiful in their own way.
Bill has been married to his wife Martha for 49 years. They have two daughters, Jenny, who is the mother of his three grandkids, and Maggie, who is a Delta Airlines pilot. The highlight
and most treasured memory of his balloon- ing career is last year on Father’s Day when his daughters, grandkids and sons-in-law all crewed for him at a balloon event in Memphis, and for the first time in 44 years, he got all his girls (wife and daughters) in the basket with him for their first flight together.
In 1981, Bill started flying in national and international hot air balloon competitions,
and since then he’s had 17 top 5 finishes in
25 events plus 2 more 7th place finishes. He would love for you to come to take a ride in his balloon at the Monroe Life Balloon Festival.
Fred Poole has a long history in aviation.
He is a skydiver with over 700 jumps, a fixed wing pilot with a seaplane rating and of course a commercial hot air balloon pilot.
His company Champagne Sunrise operates out of Meridian Mississippi and has taken hundreds of passengers for rides over the years. No stranger to adventure his wife Lori is a certified skydiver with over 200 jumps and his son Devon is a Open Water certified SCUBA diver, both are an integral part of the balloon crew and support Champagne Sunrise every flight.
Tom has loved balloons ever since he was seven years old. At that age, his next-door neighbor hired someone to fly the very firstKentucky Derby Balloon Race and Tom
got involved with chasing and helping crew balloons. “ I fell in love with it when I was really young and I’ve been doing it ever since.” Tom said.
This year was the 50th anniversary of the race and Tom has been involved every single year, with the sole exception of 1982 when he was building a house. But Tom didn’t feel too left out that year, because the finish line for the race just so happened to be his front yard!
In 2016, he completed a childhood dream
by winning the Kentucky Derby Balloon Race. “The goal to be one of my top favorite memories of all time.” Tom said. “ I was just at the right place at the right time when I won.”
Mike Wahl releases the small helium balloon and watches carefully as it twists and turns in the air currents. He needs to know what direction the wind is blowing at all different altitudes. The information is critical if he’s going to win the balloon rally.
Mike boards his hot air balloon with his crew member and fires his burners, causing it to rise off the ground. Their target is a tall pole in the far distance with a key on the top. The competing balloonists will go one at a time and whoever grabs the key wins the event and gets one step closer to the rally’s $10,000 prize.
Navigating a hot air balloon is not easy. There’s no way to directly control where it is going
as the balloon will always travel in the same direction as the wind. Fortunately, the wind is often blowing in different directions at different altitudes, so pilots can raise and
lower the balloon to reach air currents moving in the direction they want. This is why Mike released the balloon earlier. Navigating this way takes experi- ence, intuition, and some luck.
Eventually, Mike and his crew member reach the pole, but precision flying in a balloon is difficult, and they have trouble getting low enough to grab the key. Fortunately, there’s another option. Each balloonist in the rally was given a numbered bean bag to throw at the X at the base of the pole. The bags that land are scored from the pole at the X outward, with the closest three winning descending cash prizes.
Unable to reach the key, Mike and his crew member look for the bean bag… only to realize that they’ve somehow left it behind,meaning they have no way to win the competition. Panicking, they begin throwing random objects overboard instead—gloves, bags, whatever is loose in the basket. Finally, the wind carries them away from the pole and they have to land.
At the end of the competition, when all the results have been measured, the judges return with a handful of bean bags dropped by other pilots… and a pile of random objects from Mike’s balloon.
“Here’s all the stuff you dumped,” the judge says. Mike asks if their creative solution still counts, and the judges inform him that he has won second place. Over the years, Mike would go on to win countless other rallies but never in quite so unique a way as this.
My name is Benjamin Eakes, a hot air balloon pilot from Meridian Mississippi. I fell in love with aviation as a young child and always found myself 
looking to the skies. I graduated college with my FAA Airframe and Power Plant license in 2014 and started a career in general aviation specializing in corporate and business jet maintenance. During my time in college I had the opportunity to have my first exposure to a hot air balloon and I fell in love!
One evening in 2018 I was approached and asked if I wanted to wake up early and come help crew for a balloon. I was immediately excited because it had been some years since the last time I was around one. The pilot I met that morning was Fred Poole. He was very patient and instructed me on the operation of his balloon and what I needed to do. Little did I know that would be the start of a life long journey for me. I found myself crewing for him more and more and one day he told me “get in!” Shocked at the opportunity, I hopped right on in the basket
