FIBAQ aims to promote practice of ballooning in Portugal
Hot air balloons will once again “paint” the skies of the Alentejo, from November 7 to 13, during international festival FIBAQ which brings together participants from 30 teams from Portugal, Spain, France, Holland and Belgium.
Returning to Alto Alentejo for the 27th consecutive year, FIBAQ is organised by Publibalão, in collaboration with the Alentejo without Borders ballooning club.
This year’s festival will take place in the municipalities of Alter do Chão, Avis, Fronteira, Monforte and Ponte de Sor, in the district of Portalegre.
Publibalão CEO Aníbal Soares has said in a statement that FIBAQ aims to “promote the practice of ballooning in Portugal, reinforce the festival’s impact on participating towns and increase the media return for all parties”.
“It is an honour to return with this festival to the Alentejo, and to bring the magic of flying to everyone who wants to have a flying experience,” he added.
This is the great ‘upside’ of the event, visitors can “live the unforgettable experience of flying” in a hot air balloon by purchasing solidarity wristbands – the proceeds of which are then donated to fire stations in all the towns involved.
FIBAQ passes through Monforte on November 7, followed by Fronteira (November 8), Ponte de Sor (November 9 and 10), Alter do Chão (November 12) and the Abreu Callado Foundation in Benavila, in the municipality of Avis (November 13).
On November 9, at 7.45 pm, in Ponte de Sor, the “Night Glow” light, colour, and sound show is scheduled. In it, “flames from the hot air balloon burners are released to the rhythm of the music.”
Hot air balloon flights are programmed to take place twice daily ‘whenever weather conditions allow’, either at 7am/ 7.30am or 2pm/ 2.30pm.
Considered “one of the biggest and most important festivals in Europe”, FIBAQ began in 1997, serving as the basis for the opening, 15 years later, of Portugal’s first school for hot air balloon pilots in Fronteira.
Source: LUSA
