This week on What's Up Wednesday, a belated birthday, new balloon lights and a pin reminder.
It was just a short 53 years ago yesterday that a balloon event was held in an Albuquerque Shopping Center parking lot that started the journey to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. That event, organized by Sid Cutter, to celebrate the 50th birthday of radio station KOB, featured 13 balloons. Originally 21 were scheduled to attend, but weather and other transportation issues got in the way. A few hundred spectators were expected, however more than 20,000 came out. And that's how Albuquerque was introduced to the sport of modern hot-air ballooning. While Balloon Fiesta hosted more than 1000 balloons in 2000, we now limit the number of balloons to about 550 for safety reasons. Thanks for raising a toast to us in your Balloon Fiesta drinkware.
Speaking of thanks, tickets to all our activities went on sale last Friday and it appears many of you are making plans to attend this year. We're excited to have you. All the details about obtaining tickets were in last week's What's Up Wednesday, which you can view at BalloonFiestaStuff.com. Just know that a few areas like Glamping and the Concierge program are already sold out.
Last week we also released the first of our 2025 official pins; the event pin and the number 53 pins. Next week, we'll be releasing a few more of the official pins. Our plan is to release a couple of new pins every other week. Many of you asked us to spread out the release to help with your budget and we listened. Also as we mentioned last week, we acted early this year on designing, creating, and ordering this year's pins. That means they arrived in the US ahead of the tariffs being placed on most countries.
A quick note on the tariff situation. Many of the products we offer are produced outside the US. We continue to work with our suppliers on ways to keep the cost from climbing out of reach. However, we are a non-profit organization and cannot absorb all the expected increases. Unfortunately, we do expect some prices to rise as we move forward. Just know we're working to keep the prices down to earth.
Back to the subject of pins, did you know that we have pins from 2023 and 2024 still available? While we don't order more to keep them in stock, many are still available. Check your collection and stock up on any that you might be missing.
Now to the new stuff. We're excited to release a new acrylic solar hot air balloon display. Three colors, and two sizes, these balloons recharge the included AAA batteries, during the day, and perform a balloon glow with flickering flames during the evening hours. the larger nearly 10-inch balloon comes in green, while the smaller 8-inch balloons come in red and blue. Our initial order was not huge, so place your order quickly, and when we sell out, we'll order more!
Til next week, thanks for reading, for supporting Balloon Fiesta and Balloon Fiesta Stuff.