Experience a world of fantasy! Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi Balloon Festival] 2025 Information

  • Iwate
  • Experience Gifu
Hot air balloons coloring the autumn sky ©2024 IBFO
The Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival, held every October in Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture, has become an autumn tradition in Ichinoseki City since it was first held in 2012 as an event to support reconstruction from the Great East Japan Earthquake. The brightly colored balloons will fly over Ichinoseki City for three days from October 10 (Fri.) to October 12 (Sun.). The Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi Balloon Festival is a great way to enjoy the autumn sky!

Balloon festival started with a wish for reconstruction

The Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival began in 2012, the year after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, with the aim of supporting the recovery from the disaster. As the only full-scale hot-air balloon competition in the Tohoku region, this annual event is sure to be overwhelming with the sight of approximately 30 hot-air balloons soaring 8,000 feet (approximately 2,400 meters) into the skies of Tohoku. 35 hot-air balloons are scheduled to participate in this year's event in 2025.

At the Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi Balloon Festival every year, local residents cooperate in setting up food and beverage stalls, where you can taste local delicacies. This year, the festival will be held concurrently with the "14th National Mochi Festival 2025 in Ichinoseki" (Saturday, October 11 through Sunday, October 12), a gourmet festival where "local mochi" from all over Japan will be gathered, and visitors can enjoy eating their best mochi dishes, "mochi maki" (rice cake throwing) and "mochi pounding" (rice cake making) with approximately 30,000 mochi flying in the air over two days and "Mochi Pounding" performances. In addition, a panel display introducing Ichinoseki's long-established glutinous food culture and a glutinous rice cake quiz will welcome visitors to the Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi Balloon Festival.
Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival 2012
The 14th National Mochi Festival 2025 in Ichinoseki】

Details of the 2025 Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival

The Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival is one of the sites of the year-long "Hot Air Balloon Honda Grand Prix" held throughout Japan, where pilots compete in hot air balloon piloting skills. Hot air balloons use the natural wind to move laterally, and pilots are only free to ascend and descend using a burner. However, because it is dangerous to control a hot air balloon when there is an "updraft," which blows upward from the ground, competitions are generally held in the early morning and evening when the wind is calm. This year, the morning competition is scheduled to begin at 6:10 a.m., and the afternoon competition at 2:45 p.m. On October 12 (Sunday), the last day of the event, only morning competition flights will be held, so those who wish to watch the competition flights should be aware of the competition schedule and weather conditions.








If you would like to watch the competition flights, please check the competition schedule and the weather on the day of the competition. ~ (Ichinoseki Hirose You Dome)
【Balloon Illusion】
Saturday, October 11, 18:00-18:30

What is a hot air balloon competition?

By the way, do you know what "hot air balloon competition" is? In hot air ballooning, competitions are called "tasks". There are various types of tasks, but here we will introduce a "flight accuracy" task as an example. Competitors pilot a hot air balloon toward a target called a "target," and when they approach the target, they drop a "marker" from the sky. The marker is a sandbag with a two-meter long piece of cloth connected to it. The closer the marker is dropped from the center of the target, the more points can be earned. Multiple such tasks are set during the competition, and the competitor with the highest number of points earned is the winner of the competition.
Markers being dropped from a hot air balloon ©2024 IBFO

Balloon illusions like the last scene in a movie

During the daytime, pilots compete in heated competition at the Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival, but at night, the scene is different from that during the daytime. The "Balloon Illusion," a regular nighttime event, will be held from 6:00 p.m. when it gets dark. The venue is the Iwai River Green behind Ichinoseki Daiichi High School, a 20-minute walk from JR Ichinoseki Station. The sight of hot-air balloons lit by the flames of burners in the darkness lined up along the riverbed is a fantastic sight, reminiscent of the world of movies. If you want to see a fantastic sight, please stay in Ichinoseki City and enjoy it to your heart's content, along with the competition flights during the daytime!
Balloon illusion ©2024 IBFO

Learn about the charms of Ichinoseki, Iwate through hot-air ballooning.

How was our introduction of the Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival? If you would like to not only see but also actually ride in a hot air balloon flying gracefully in the sky, please join the "hot air balloon mooring experience boarding" at the Ichinoseki Waterfront Plaza and the Ichinoseki Hirose Youth Dome during the event period. Board a balloon connected to a long rope and gaze at the scenery from a height of about 20 meters above the ground. Please enjoy the scenery of Iwate in autumn from a perspective you cannot normally see, while feeling the heat from the burner close at hand! Advance reservations are required, so be sure to check the official Ichinoseki City sightseeing site "Ichitabi! Ichitabi!", the official Ichinoseki City tourist site, and the official convention website for the latest information.
Boarding a moored balloon at the Balloon Festival ©2024 IBFO
Ichinoseki & Hiraizumi Balloon Festival official website
[Hot Air Balloon Mooring Experience Boarding Session] For more information

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