Balloon event moved to September

GONZALES — Organizers of an Ascension Parish balloon festival have moved the event date a second time in two weeks, citing conflicts with local events and a major hot air ballooning competition in Albuquerque, N.M.

The Louisiana Hot Air Balloon Championship Festival at the Lamar-Dixon Expo Center near Gonzales is scheduled from 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sept. 21-22, organizers said in a news release.

Hot air balloon competition flights, which will take off from locations across Ascension Parish, would take place Sept. 21-23, organizers said.

Ascension Festivals and Cultural Council Inc. officials earlier had called for an Oct. 5-7 balloon festival, but ran into conflicts with the Festival of Friends, a Catholic school fair in Gonzales; a Boy Scout gathering; and the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

Charlotte Guedry, who serves on a volunteer cultural council committee working on the balloon event in Ascension, said the organizers believe the main reason for staging a hot air balloon festival is for children and families to attend.

“And we didn’t want people to feel torn as to what to do,” Guedry said.