The 2020 Taiwan International Balloon Festival Boasts Unstoppable Charm, Drawing a Crowd of 120,000 on Opening Day

The "2020 Taiwan International Balloon Festival," the first of its kind held anywhere in the world so far this year, officially kicked off on 7/11 and will run for 51 days without scaling back through 8/30. On the morning of 7/11, accompanied by 19 balloons from home and abroad, a mass balloon ascent ceremony was held at Luye Highland. In the afternoon, the tethered balloon activities drew a steady stream of visitors, and the crowd at the glow music concert that began at 7 p.m. reached its peak. Taitung County Magistrate Yao Ching-ling, seeing this, spent the whole day from morning to night experiencing the happy positive energy of hot air balloons together with the people on site, leading the crowd to shout in unison "10 in gratitude to you," jointly witnessing the milestone of the Taiwan Balloon Festival entering its tenth year.

On opening day, the crowds continued to grow from morning to night, with shuttle vehicles continuously ferrying visitors, and the site was already packed with people before the event began. The Taitung County Department of Transportation and Tourism Development stated that the morning, afternoon and evening glow music concert on opening day was estimated to attract more than 120,000 visitors, demonstrating the energy of revenge travel. This year's Taiwan International Balloon Festival, due to the impact of the pandemic, can be said to be the most severely challenged year in its history, but in order to showcase Taiwan's positive energy, as many as 28 shaped balloons from countries around the world were still brought in, and they will successively show off their splendor at Luye Highland, giving visitors 51 days full of energy.

The opening glow music concert featured performances led by Taiwan's national balloon team, such as the OhBear Balloon, the Fuli Bear Balloon and the Heart Balloon, paired with the first wave of star shaped balloons led by SpongeBob, which carried out the first wave of shaped balloon glow performances. It was originally expected that as many as 18 balloons would take part in the opening glow music concert, but due to the influence of the wind in the evening, and thanks to the efforts of the flight team and the cheers of the public, the glow performance was ultimately carried out with 16 balloons. The balloons, coordinated with the rhythm of the music, laser lighting and fireworks, presented a dazzling visual effect. As the grand finale, the well-known band 831 was invited to perform, igniting the atmosphere on site, and multiple popular songs brought a brilliant end to the opening day of the Taiwan International Balloon Festival.