Balloon fest organizers site shopping
Organizers of Baton Rouge’s annual hot-air Balloon Festival said Thursday that after learning that its home for nine years at Pennington Biomedical Research Center would no longer be available, they still want to keep the three-day event in the city-parish.
Louisiana Ballooning Foundation officials said they have been “exploring different options” in East Baton Rouge Parish, but have not yet found a suitable site for the festival that annually attracted thousands to Pennington’s open fields off Kenilworth Boulevard.
“I think it would be great if we could (stay in Baton Rouge), but right now, we are exploring different options and they are not panning out like we want them to,” said Linda Wunstel, chairwoman of the foundation board of directors.
Wunstel also is marketing manager of The Advocate, a major sponsor of the festival.
She said the six-member board plans to meet to decide the issue, though no date has been set yet.
“We have a board meeting we’re going to call in the next two weeks, and I am sure we will make decision at that point,” Wunstel said.
Pennington officials cited safety and logistical concerns, pointing to a lightning strike that canceled one night of events last year and to planned construction projects gradually displacing some of the festival’s traditional parking area and space for its large tents.
Center spokeswoman Angela deGravelles said Pennington officials informed the festival of their final decision in November after reconsidering — at festival officials’ request — an initial decision earlier in the same month.
The nonprofit festival pays to use the site. At the end of December, Pennington also did not renew the lease for a building on center grounds that the festival foundation had used for its executive director’s office and for storage, Wunstel said.
Festival officials said they had been talking to Ascension Parish government officials, at least generally, about the parish-owned Lamar-Dixon Expo Center near Gonzales more than a year ago, but the festival foundation executive director, George Richard, said he was surprised by Pennington’s decision to quit hosting the festival.
Richard and Wunstel said they did not know the center’s reasons for severing its relationship with the festival until those reasons became public Thursday.
Wunstel said she had mailed a letter Wednesday asking Dr. Steven Heymsfield, Pennington executive director, why the decision was made.
Pennington officials had disclosed the decision publicly Wednesday after media inquiries were made.
DeGravelles said Pennington received Wunstel’s letter late Thursday and a response is forthcoming.
Richard said festival officials have looked at sites in West Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes.
“The bottom line is, at this point, we really don’t know what the final outcome is going to be, and we really are looking at all possibilities, and Lamar-Dixon is one,” Richard said.
The president of InfiniEdge Software Inc., of Prairieville, Brad Walker, has helped lead Ascension Parish’s attempt to land the festival.
Walker said he has sponsored a balloon entry in the festival competition for the past five to six years and spoke with festival officials about the sprawling equestrian and events facility off La. 30.
Walker helped stage the Louisiana Festival of Festivals in the fall 2010 at Lamar-Dixon, and Balloon Festival officials visited that festival while it was under way.
He acknowledged that given the Balloon Festival’s Baton Rouge ties, it would not be easy to get its home switched to Ascension Parish.
“I’m just helping out because I like ballooning and the Balloon Festival,” Walker said.
Richard said a decision on a location would have to be made by the end of February, especially with an anticipated change in locations.
The festival is traditionally held the first weekend in August, he said.
While the date could change, Richard said, the national circuit of hot-air balloonists who participate in the event know that week as the one for the Baton Rouge event.
In East Baton Rouge Parish, he said, festival officials have looked at the BREC Airline Highway Park/Fairgrounds, a site near Metro Airport and BREC soccer fields on Burbank Boulevard.
There are drawbacks to each of those locations, Richard said.
He said the fairgrounds, which was the site of an earlier version of the festival when it was a national ballooning contest, has power lines nearby and has attracted additional development during the past decade.
He said the Burbank soccer fields are close to the Mississippi River, while the airport site would require shutting down one of the airport’s two commercial runways due to Federal Aviation Administration regulations.
Airport officials have spoken to Richard, according to Jim Caldwell, the airport’s air service development, marketing and public relations manager.
He said the concept, in addition to forcing a runway closure, also raised parking and security concerns.
“He (Richard) did contact us about it, and we discussed the difficulties it would pose for us and made the decision it would not be feasible,” Caldwell said.