Experience Magic at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta with Kids
The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is back for 2021! This festival is a family favorite and is especially amazing with kids. Your kids will love the morning views of a sky filled with balloons and the evenings of lit-up displays.
Thank you to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta for sponsoring our visit to the 2018 Balloon Fiesta.
About the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
The International Balloon Fiesta is held annually in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This year’s festivities will mark the 49th year that hot air balloons enthusiasts and professionals have gathered. Each festival features multiple days over the span of two weeks in early October, featuring balloons from all over the world.
Kids marvel at hundreds of balloons taking flight each morning and love the characters and themed balloon they can see up close in the evening! It is truly a family-friendly event.
The weather in Albuquerque makes it a perfect spot to host the Balloon Fiesta each year with favorable conditions for liftoff. It also makes it a great destination for any Western U.S. adventurers! The weather is great and the surrounding Albuquerque area offers lots to do in between events at the festival.
We attended with toddlers in 2018 and they loved the whole day. We were able to take a double stroller and explore the park with them.
2021 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
When: October 2-10
Where: Balloon Fiesta Park, Albuquerque, New Mexico
The 2021 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is back on as an in-person event! Tickets are $15 per person over the age of 12 per session. Yes, kids are free! A session constitutes all morning activities or all evening activities.
You can purchase tickets for the 2021 festival here.
Each year the festival features balloon flights and many events and activities throughout the day including chainsaw carving exhibitions, live music, food trucks, glow-ups and more. You can see the 2021 Event Schedule here. More events will be added as the Fiesta draws near.
Tips for Attending Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta With Kids
You can bring diaper bags and backpacks into the Fiesta, as well as food and drinks. Because the area is so large, you won’t always be near amenities when your kids get hungry or thirty. I recommend packing snacks, lunches and plenty to drink to bring with you.
You are allowed to bring these items into the park, but your bags will be searched a head of time.
Make sure to stop by the Balloon Discovery Center during your visit. There are lots of hands-on activities and other ways to explore and learn about the balloons that your kids will love.
Bring lawn chairs and picnic blankets because there are not many seating areas around the park. You can, however, pick a spot on the lawn to stop and let the kids run around and play or rest and eat a snack.
Pack plenty of layers and warm gloves and hats. It gets COLD before the sun comes up and after it goes down in the evening, even if they day is pretty temperate and mild.
As you move around the park, ask the balloon pilots and crew if they have trading cards they are handing out! Your kids will love collecting cards from all of the pilots that have pictures of their balloons on them. My boys loved having some souvenirs to take home and I loved that they were free 😉
With little kids, a stroller is going to be your best friend. The launch field alone is larger than 75 acres, so you’ll cover a lot of ground. I recommend a jogging stroller that can best handle the grassy field, but regular strollers should be okay too.
The crowds were unbelievable on a Saturday morning. There were people everywhere and it kind of felt like Disneyland for a while. But once balloons started taking off and clearing more space on the ground the crowds thinned out.
For more information, check out the Fiesta’s FAQ page here.
Getting To The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
The morning events happen EARLY, which can be a challenge to attend with kids but entirely worth the effort. We left our hotel slightly before 5 a.m. and probably should have left before then to make it to the 6 a.m. Dawn Patrol, because we actually missed it!
I would plan to leave around 4 a.m. if you want to make the Dawn Patrol, or 4:15 a.m. if you just want to see Mass Ascension. You want to have plenty of time to park and find a place to watch the events. Pack breakfast for yourself and the kids and plan to take naps after the excitement!
Similarly, in the evening you will want to get to the park around 4:30 p.m. to enjoy the evening festivities including the Glowdeo. Please note, the evening festivities are only on weekends.
There are two different freeway exits to Balloon Fiesta Park. There tends to be heavy traffic as so many people are trying to get there in the morning. We found luck with the freeway exits to the north of the park heading south along NM-313 (El Camino Real) and entered the park from the west.
Additionally, there are shuttles from different spots around Albuquerque. However, with kids we choose to drive our own vehicles for their comfort so early in the morning.
Things Kids Can’t Miss at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
There are lots of events at the Balloon Fiesta that are super family-friendly and interesting for kids. The two that are completely must-see events are the Mass Ascension that takes place in the early morning, and the evening Glowdeo events, where you can see the balloons up close and personal in the evening.
Attending the Morning Events at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
The morning events are going to be a big hit with your kids. This is when they will get to see all of the balloons taking off and the classic sky full of hundreds of balloons.
There are two main events in the morning: the Dawn Patrol and Mass Ascension. Dawn Patrol is a select few balloons that get to lift off before sunrise. Mass Ascension is when all 500+ balloons take flight over a two-hour period of time.
Our Experience at the Morning Ascension with Kids
The morning starts with the Rainbow Ryders, which are the balloons that people can pay to ride. Once our boys are tall enough to ride in the balloons we are definitely taking advantage of that! And then one by one the rest of the balloons from all over the world head for the skies!
We loved walking around and getting to see all of the morning excitement. It had a much different feel than the night before as everyone was hurrying around and perhaps had a tad bit of nervous energy, too!
Another really cool thing about attending the Mass Ascension in the morning is that you can see up close and personal how the balloons take off. Your kids will love an intimate view of the process.
We watched as one balloon was filled up using a large industrial fan. It takes about as much time as you would imagine to fill up such a large balloon.
It was majestic to see how effortlessly the balloons lifted off the ground once they were ready to take flight. Almost as if they were as light as air. However, the average balloon set up weights around 800 pounds deflated.
Special shapes and large commercial balloons can weigh much more! And once in the air, the balloon with the trapped air can weight up to 2.5 tons.
While it was incredible to be up close and personal with the balloons, the true majesty was in taking a step, or a few hundred, back and taking in the sheer mass of balloons in the air. We climbed up the hill after about an hour to get some breakfast and were taken aback at how many balloons you could see for miles in the sky.
Kids will love running around through the balloons and seeing everything up close and personal. It is a magical experience.
Attending the Afternoon Events and Evening Glowdeo
Possibly the best thing to do with kids at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is the Glowdeo!
I suggest arriving between 4:30 p.m. and 5 p.m. for the afternoon and evening events. You will have plenty of time to get some sort of snack or treat, check out the Balloon Discovery Center and watch as they set up the balloons. However, make sure to check the schedule for the day you are attending in case there is something going on earlier that you want to see!
Around 6 p.m. the balloons started setting up! Every evening there is a light show or “glow” and laser show. We were lucky enough to be there on the night that all of the special shapes balloons were doing the glow and the boys thought it was so cool!
This seal was a favorite for my boys. Some of our other favorites included a Spiderman pig, a pair of elephants, several dogs and the Wells Fargo wagon.
We loved seeing the balloons lit up against the night sky as the sun set. It was so magical to experience!
On weekends, there are also fireworks after the Glowdeo. We opted not to stay for the fireworks because it was already way past our bedtime and we had our alarms set for 4 a.m. the next morning!
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