High River is gearing up to host the annual Heritage Inn International Balloon Festival later this month.

Volunteer coordinator Janice Storch-King says a lot of the pilots and people locally have made lasting friendships.

"Like a a family reunion we get to see everybody again and some new faces, we're excited about those," she says. "We have some pilots coming over from the United Kingdom, we have people coming from Colorado, from Alaska all sort of places, down east, everywhere."

She says they're looking for people willing to crew some of the flights.

"The morning shift starts with a morning briefing at the Heritage Inn at 7 a.m., you meet us there at the Heritage Inn, the pilots get their briefing, they get their weather report, they get the flight task for that day," Storch-King explains. "Each flight that they fly has tasks and goals associated with it, it's not just go up and fly, they're trying to accomplish something in the competition."

She says after that volunteers jump in the truck with their pilot and assist the pilots at the launch field to lay out the balloon and inflate it with the fans and burners. After they take off, volunteers follow them in the truck to wherever they land and then help to gather up the balloon and put it away before returning to High River. She says it's about a four hour shift.

She says a highlight again this year as every year previous is the moon glow where the balloons are fired up at night and tethered to the ground so people can wander around and talk with the pilots.

The event Starts Sept 23 and goes to Sept 26.

The volunteer or get more information go to https://www.facebook.com/HeritageInnBalloonFestival