Riding the Wind

A personal invitation

First held in 2011, the Taiwan International Balloon Festival is now in its 16th edition. In 2018, Travel Channel included it among its “12 Amazing Hot Air Balloon Festivals Around the World.” Evelyn Chen, who was involved in the festival’s early development, recalls traveling to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta in the United States to invite international pilots to bring their balloons to Taiwan. She walked across the grass, handing out homemade flyers and business cards one by one and inviting them to come and see Taitung. “Sometimes I even found the flyers I had handed out lying on the ground,” she says with a laugh.

Fueled by such enthusiasm, Taitung’s balloon festival gradually built an international reputation. Today, pilots from abroad contact the organizers directly and recommend the festival to one another. Many balloon festivals overseas last just one or two weeks; Taitung’s roughly seven-week run is another draw for pilots.

Wearing a red cap, balloon commander Wout Bakker (fourth from right) carries two pilot balloons before releasing them to assess conditions at the site.

At dusk at Luye Highland, spectators sit on the grass to watch a display of special-shaped balloons.

Pilots from around the world bring their balloons to Taitung and share the joy of flight.

The challenges and allure of flight

Bakker, who is from the Netherlands, has served as the festival’s balloon commander since 2012 and plays a central role in flight safety. He says the weather is the greatest challenge to flying in Taitung. Luye Highland lies in the East Rift Valley, not far from the coast, where the wind can change rapidly. “It may be calm, but five minutes later the wind can pick up and we have to bring the balloons down quickly.” Instruments cannot predict conditions perfectly, he says; pilots must still make on-the-spot judgments based on experience.

Martin Yuan-ting Lin was among Taiwan’s first professional hot-air-balloon pilots to train in the United States. He attended the inaugural festival as a visitor and now has more than a decade of flying experience. What makes Taitung so appealing, he says, is its distinctive valley landscape. Rice fields change color with the seasons, while mountain ranges stretch across the horizon—a setting for balloon flight rarely found elsewhere. “Once you’re airborne, there is scenery in every direction.” The Taitung Luye Gaotai hot-air-balloon airspace, officially designated by Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA), also permits free flight in the area. Even simply watching the balloons from the ground can evoke the thrill of seeing a dream take flight.

In their downtime, Taiwanese team members take visiting pilots to Indigenous communities, tea gardens for tastings, and rivers to cool off, building rapport and friendships along the way. Taiwan is a safe and beautiful place, Bakker says: “I was amazed the first time I came, and I still feel the same way today.”

Wout Bakker of the Netherlands has decades of flying experience and has taken part in the Taiwan International Balloon Festival since 2012, playing a key role in flight safety.

Before each flight, Wout Bakker briefs pilots on the schedule, weather forecast, and safety considerations in the pilots’ briefing room.

On a tethered ride, ropes hold the balloon in place as it carries passengers up and down at a fixed location.

No ground crew, no flight

Crew commander Nachu Lin coordinates more than 100 ground crew members. “Hot-air balloons look light, but they are actually very heavy,” he says. Together with its wicker basket and equipment, each balloon weighs more than 300 kilograms. Every stage—from transporting the balloon and laying out the envelope to inflation, raising it upright, and packing it away—depends on teamwork.

What worries him most is a sudden gust after a balloon has been raised upright, which can destabilize it and endanger people nearby. Whenever there are strong winds, rain, or an approaching typhoon, flights must be canceled or the site cleared at short notice, however disappointed visitors may be. Clearing the entire site before a typhoon is a major challenge for the ground crews.

Many crew members are local young people and students. The county government provides paid positions and professional training, making the festival not only a major tourism event but also a platform for developing talent and creating jobs. Having traveled to balloon events around the world, Bakker says that whenever Taitung comes up, “many pilots consider it one of the best-organized balloon festivals in the world.”

Crew commander Nachu Lin (center) coordinates ground operations to help keep visitors and staff safe.

Before a balloon is raised, its envelope is spread across the grass and filled with cool air using a large fan. Once the envelope has inflated, the pilot fires the burner to bring the balloon upright.

Hot-air balloons meet drones

Beyond the daytime displays, the Night Glow Concerts are another highlight. As darkness falls, the balloons become giant illuminated displays, brightening and dimming in time with the music; flames from the burners and drone formations play off one another, drawing cheers from the crowd.

In recent years, special-shaped balloons featuring Hello Kitty, Doraemon, and Mazu have appeared at the festival, joined this year by Chiikawa. Annual attendance reaches hundreds of thousands and has exceeded one million in some years, while the changing lineup keeps the festival in the spotlight.

Taitung has built its balloon culture from the ground up, turning what once seemed a distant foreign spectacle into a local summer tradition. Each summer, every burst of color rising above the valley marks Taitung’s journey onto the international stage. The power to soar comes from everyone who moves with the wind and dares to pursue a dream.

A parade by the balloon teams opens the evening’s Night Glow Concert; flames pierce the darkness and instantly electrify the crowd.

The Night Glow Concert combines hot-air balloons, drone formations, and fireworks, bringing a summer night at Luye Highland to a spectacular climax.

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Once the balloon lifts off, the world seems to fall silent. This sense of quiet and openness is one of ballooning’s greatest charms.