The 11th celebration of LORRAINE MONDIAL AIR BALLOONS, took place in Chambley, France from Friday, July 24th to Sunday, August 2nd 2009.  On July 26, 329 pilots took their colorful hot air balloons into the sky to celebrate this extraordinary biannual event. 

The LORRAINE MONDIAL AIR BALLOON event began in 1989. Back then, the creation of such an event was uncommon; the event acted as a show, a competition and a catalyst to promote tourism in the area. The aim of the event was to gather a thousand hot-air balloons from 67 nations, during ten festive days. Through this event it was also an opportunity to invite visitors, media and partners. The most international ballooning event in the world is held on Chambley Air Base (Meurthe&Moselle - Lorraine) every other year by the end of July.

In an area of 500 acres, in the heart of Lorraine Nature Park, the event site is organized around the launch field. From the main gate, a grand boulevard deserves three villages called "BalloonVille". Public, crews and partners have their own area. For the creation of this event a small team which is compromised of seven people work really hard for twenty months to set up this event. And because 14 hands are not enough to run the event, during the event days another six hundred helping hands or three hundred volunteers join the event a few days before and have many different functions, to help that huge machine run smoothly! 

 Seeing one hot air balloon in flight is beautiful, but seeing 329 is just something else!  Breathtaking at least!  This colorful event was captured by many great photographers  from the flickr community and some of Yatzer’s favorite pictures follow!  For further information on the event which follows in 2011 log on to Pilâtre de Rozier