The 2020 High River Heritage Inn International Balloon Festival wrapped up over the weekend after a couple of successful flights.

Event Chair, Jamie Kinghorn, says despite the wind, they were able to get in a pair of flights to help determine a champion.

"A previous champion, not the defending champion, but a previous champion, won again this year. That was a fellow by the name of Dale Ritchie and then Bill Whalen, one of our pilots from Ottawa came in second. Richard Clark came in third place and he's a Calgary Pilot."

Kinghorn, says despite trying to keep quiet about when and where they were taking off from, they still drew a crowd.

"People, locals especially in High River know where we are and as soon as they saw the posts that we were flying, headed over there. The good thing about is I saw most of the people doing the social distancing thing and I know in the launch field everybody was well masked. We were trying to make it a COVID-safe environment and I think we were successful at that."

Kinghorn says in all, they had 17 Canadian balloons out for the event, and hopes to get the Americans and Europeans back again next year.

 

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