Great Southeast BalloonFest

[GSP Tiger]

Anderson Independent-Mail: Anderson is making another attempt to land a balloon festival. The Great Southeast BalloonFest will debut Labor Day weekend.

It was bad that Anderson lost Freedom Weekend Aloft, but is great to have a major festival on another holiday weekend. It is crucial to see how this year's event succeeds, so it can return in following years.

[interestedexpat]

They've prebuilt this as a winner. They put it on the same weekend as the FSU - Clemson game. Hotels are already fully booked. Clearly there will be lots of people around. But are the balloons an attraction? I don't know. This is just adding synergy to an already hot weekend in Anderson. Don't know how many extra dollars will pump into the local economy as a result 'cause the people coming are already here.

The music line up was announced. Nothing that caught my attention. The country singer is a former American Idol guy. I'm not into country - can't remember his name. The R&B is old school - Morris Day and the Time. I can't imagine that drawing a big crowd. And I don't remember a Rock and Roll offering.

[GSP Tiger]

Imagine seeing balloons from the north side seating during the Florida State/Clemson game. That can draw fans into Anderson after the game.

Rita Coolidge comes the closest for rock, best known for "Your Love Has Lifted Me Up Higher and Higher" and "All Time High" from the James Bond film Octu######. I like to see some better known acts next year.

[ab1137]

Just a friendly suggestion to those of you who can make it to Anderson to do so. While the concerts aren't as main-stream as FWA, this is the first year for this particular event and a strong community showing would help the festival to pick up some larger entertainers next year. Parking is $5 and admission is free, which is a great price to take your family to see balloons which your kids will remember for years.

http://www.independentmail.com/news/2007/a...nderson-county/

Hope to you see guys there!

[GvilleSC]

How is this event going? There is so much going on across the upstate this weekend that it could either hurt it or help it... I hope Anderson does well with this and I hope there will be some numbers out soon, as well as some opinions...

[interestedexpat]

Reports are that the event did well. I haven't seen crowd counts, but it made money and the balloonists all loved it. The only negatives I saw had to do with the size of the event and the concerts associated with it.

As for size - it wasn't intended to be freedom weekend aloft. But some are disappointed that it wasn't.

As for the concerts - the event was planned too late to get bigger name acts. Next year will be a better test.