BUSTER THE BRITISH BULLDOG SET FOR LIFT OFF
Special shaped balloon Buster, a British bulldog, will be one of the star attractions at the Wairarapa Balloon Festival next month.
All the way from Bristol, England, the happy-faced canine, complete with a three-metre-long floppy tongue, continues the festival’s link to Old Blighty with last year’s headline special-shape a Queen’s Guard, called Busby.
Buster will be one of at least three special-shape balloons for the five-day festival over the Easter Weekend including a house and a van. In total, at least 16 balloons have been confirmed.
Although a relatively recent arrival on the international scene, Buster has been flown throughout Europe, Mexico, USA, Thailand and Taiwan. The Wairarapa festival will be the first time he has been let free in Australasian skies.
Pilot and owner, Paul Burrows, says he is excited to be bringing Buster to the Wairarapa. He piloted Busby at the 2019 Wairarapa festival.
Burrows has been flying hot air balloons since the age of 17 and was the youngest pilot in Europe when he completed his qualifications.
He has flown some of the best-known shapes on the circuit, including the Kiwi Bird, the Little Girl and Little Boy, and at the time, the world’s largest pair of green underpants, which was part of a marketing campaign for an online bookmakers.
This year marks the 21st birthday of the popular annual show in Wairarapa, and the fourth consecutive year for Robyn Cherry-Campbell as event organiser.Cherry-Campbell says she will be bowing out at the end of the 2020 event.
“I have loved every minute of being involved in the festival, and I’m really hoping that this one, my last, will be the best yet,” she says.
The festival opens with a “mass ascension” from Queen Elizabeth Park in Masterton on Thursday 9 April, followed by early morning lift-offs in Carterton, Greytown and Martinborough over the following days. There will be numerous other free events throughout the festival day giving the public the chance to meet the pilots and walk through an inflated balloon envelope.
The show piece of the festival will be the Night Show on Saturday 11 April at the Solway Showgrounds in Masterton, which in recent years has attracted crowds of up to 15,000 people.
Full details available at www.nzballoons.co.nz
Contact Robyn Cherry-Campbell 021 1556821; wairarapaballoons@gmail.com