It Started With 13 Balloons in a Mall Parking Lot

A Radio Station's 50th Birthday Party

The idea came from KOB, an Albuquerque radio station turning 50 years old. Promotional director Susan Johnson wanted a centerpiece for the celebration.

She brought in Sid Cutter, the owner of a local flying service and New Mexico's first hot air balloon owner. Cutter worked with KOB staff, including Don Draper, Mike Draper, and Tom Rutherford, to plan a mass balloon launch.

They had very little time to organize it. Twenty-one pilots from seven states, including Arizona, California, and Texas, signed up to fly.

Thirteen Balloons, One Storm

On April 8, 1972, last-minute cancellations and a storm moving through the Midwest kept eight pilots from making it to Albuquerque. Only 13 balloons launched that morning.

They lifted off from the parking lot of Coronado Center, a shopping mall on the north side of the city, instead of an airfield or open field.

Despite the small turnout of aircraft, an estimated 20,000 spectators showed up to watch balloons drift over the mall's parking lot.

From a Parking Lot to 350 Acres

The event returned the following year and kept growing. In 1973, it added the first World Hot Air Balloon Championship.

By 1978, entries had grown to 273 balloons. By 1988, that number reached 600.

In 1987, organizers added the Balloon Glow, an evening event where tethered balloons inflate and light up after dark without leaving the ground.

Balloon entries peaked at 1,019 in the year 2000, a launch record. Landing sites around the city were shrinking, so organizers began capping registrations to keep the event safe.

The festival also outgrew the mall. It now runs from a permanent 350-acre balloon park built for the event.

Often Called the Most Photographed Event on Earth

Today, more than 500 balloons launch together during the Fiesta's mass ascensions, filling the sky over nine days each fall.

Attendance has grown just as sharply. In 2015 alone, the Fiesta drew 955,703 visitors, nearly a million people watching balloons rise over the same city where 20,000 once gathered in a parking lot.

The mall where it all started is still standing. But every October, the sky above Albuquerque fills the same way it did in 1972, one balloon at a time.