6 BALLOONS OVER VERMILION
Flying high for 10 years
By Chad Dare / Commercial-News Editor
DANVILLE " It ' s for the kids."
That was the original motto for Balloons Over Vermilion, according to Pat O ' Shaughnessy, who served as its co-chair along with Jim Anderson when it started in 2016.
That philosophy remains as the event will mark its 10th anniversary on Friday, June 5 and Saturday, June 6.
" We have always tried to live up to that,'' said O ' Shaughnessy, who stepped away as co-chair but still has a role in the event. " We ' ve accomplished that by getting kids involved with a classroom of kids being our host class, leading the parade and working on posters. Not to mention the number of kids who enjoy the show every year.''
And this year, Balloons over Vermillion are making a couple of significant changes the dates and the venue.
In the first nine years, the event was held in the second week of July at the Vermilion Regional Airport. This year, it ' s the first weekend in June and the new location is Kennekuk County Park in Danville.
" We have a super relationship with the airport,'' said Dean Carlton, one of this year ' s co-chairs along with Carly Goodwin.
Carlton, who is also a hot-air balloon pilot, says Kennekuk just offers more opportunities.
" From a pilot perspective, everything is better,'' he said. " It ' s a much bigger space for our balloons. We have more room. With the trees that are in the park, it provides us a small amount of shelter, which helps us get balloons inflated when the wind is a little too much. And the area that can we fly from in the park are very, very friendly to balloons and accessible for landing.''
Additionally, this year ' s event is adding a couple of new attractions with a nightly 300-drone grand finale produced by FlyLight Drone Shows, along with a colorful daytime kite displays presented by Chicago Kites from 3-6 p. m. each day.
" Those were things that we couldn ' t do at the airport because of FAA regulations,'' O ' Shaughnessy said. " This is going to be the first drone show in this area and we think that is going to be a real crowd pleaser.''
The drone show and the kite displays revert back to the original motto " it ' s for the kids.''
That ' s why Carlton along with Larry Owen worked so hard to bring the balloon festival back to Vermilion County.