Balloon Fiesta Day 6: Green flag waves for Special Shapes Rodeo

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s a Special Shapes kind of day at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and the green flag is waving to christen it.

Thursday is the Special Shapes Rodeo. It’s the day to showcase the 117 Special Shape balloons in the 54th edition of Balloon Fiesta. That includes 13 new ones.

The U.S. has five new Special Shapes – Eva, Ducking Grateful, Agape, Scout and Johnny Panda. Brazil has four – Falcon Ozi, Walrus, Blue Jay Cotorro Tiberio. The United Kingdom has Finley the Turtle, Gus and Rock, while North Macedonia gets in on the fun with Diamond.

There are also some that are known and homegrown. There is a red chile ristra and even Zozobra. They’re all a part of the largest gathering of special shape balloons in the world.

“It’s all dependent on the winds for this balloon. It’s temperamental in the winds. It likes to twist and turn and and so it’ll really depend on that,” said Mark Yocom, pilot of La Ristra.

There are the classics too, including Airabelle the cow. She is, by far, the biggest special shape balloon: 120 feet long and 910 pounds!

“It takes 16 people just to carry the balloon out of the trailer to get it set up,” crew chief Danny Maez said. “We have people who are very well trained on the top of it, the head and the hook, the legs on the front and then we got people who are trained really well on the back. So each one of them goes through. We start with each leg… velcro it up and then go on to the next.”

If you missed Thursday morning’s Special Shapes Rodeo, it’s happening again Friday morning for kids day. There is also the Special Shapes Glow-deo Thursday evening and Friday evening.