This is the first in a series of posts about Sky Portal in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

This sculpture was completed in 2014 and it was commissioned by the city of Albuquerque, which works in partnership with the International Balloon Museum.

The balloon festival–it’s called the Balloon Fiesta–is the largest hot air ballooning event in the world, so there are more balloons there than anywhere over a period of–I think it’s a week, maybe it’s a little shorter.   It’s stunning, I can’t remember how many hundreds of balloons at once are going up.  But they’re set off in a huge field right next to the balloon museum.  The sculpture is between the balloon museum and this field where they launch the balloons.  

It’s a unique situation there for ballooning, because of the air currents.  Essentially what happens is there’s kind of a circular system, so you can launch a balloon, it’ll take you a certain distance and then up, and then it’ll take you back and then beyond your starting point.  And if you’re good, you can use those currents to make a big circle and land essentially in the same place. 

So, I did go out there to witness this, and it was really just incredible.  I mean the whole city of Albuquerque is overtaken by it–everything changes, traffic patterns change, things open and close differently, it’s just amazing.  And it’s really cool.  They start before the sun rises, even.  And when the burners that produce the hot air for the balloon go on, they illuminate the balloon.  So if it’s in the dark, you see the balloon illuminates, like a light bulb, glowing.  

The whole thing is pretty amazing visually, and just the sheer mass of people.  I don’t know if they’re going to do it this October.  I mean they probably will have some version of it, but I can’t imagine with that mass of people, packed, I don’t see it in the cards necessarily, which is disappointing.

Albuquerque, public art, sky portal