The Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi Balloon Festival is a fantastic experience! Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi Balloon Festival" to color the autumn sky of Iwate

  • Iwate
  • Experience Gifu
Hot air balloons coloring the autumn sky ©2024 IBFO
The Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival is held every October in Ichinoseki City, Iwate Prefecture. Since it was first held in 2012 as an event to support the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake, it has become an autumn tradition in Ichinoseki City. Let us introduce you to the Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi Balloon Festival, which colors the autumn sky, and its attractions!

Balloon Festival started out of a desire for reconstruction

The Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi Balloon Festival began in 2012, the year after the earthquake, with the purpose of supporting the recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake that occurred in 2011. As the only full-scale hot-air balloon competition in the Tohoku region, visitors are sure to be overwhelmed by the sight of the approximately 30 hot-air balloons that take to the skies over Tohoku each year, soaring to altitudes of up to 8,000 feet (approximately 2,400 meters) in the air! Thirty-five hot air balloons are scheduled to participate in this year's competition.

Every year, local residents cooperate in setting up food and beverage stalls at this event, allowing visitors to taste local delicacies. This year, the festival will be held in conjunction with the "13th National Mochi Festival 2024 in Ichinoseki" (Saturday, October 12 - Sunday, October 13), a gourmet festival where "local mochi" from all over Japan will gather. The festival will also feature a "Mochimaki" (rice cake throwing) and "Mochitsuki" (rice cake pounding) performances. In addition, visitors will be welcomed by a corner introducing Ichinoseki's long-established glutinous food culture, a glutinous rice cake quiz, and other programs that will allow them to enjoy both ballooning and glutinous food together.
Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival 2012

Let's go see hot air balloons fly!

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 will begin at 6:20 a.m., and the afternoon competition will begin at 2:45 p.m., each lasting about two hours. On the third and final day of the competition, competition flights will be held only in the morning, so those who wish to watch the competition flights should pay attention to the competition schedule and the weather on the day of the competition.

What is a hot air balloon competition?

By the way, do you know what a "hot air balloon competition" is? In hot air ballooning, competitions are called "tasks. There are various types of tasks, but here is an example of a "flight accuracy" task. 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 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 scene reminiscent of the world of movies, and the 2024 event will be held on Saturday, October 12, the second day of the competition. If you want to see the fantastic spectacle, 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 balloons

During the Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival, the public is welcome to board hot-air balloons at the Ichinoseki Waterfront Plaza and Ichinoseki Hirose Youth Dome. Visitors can board the balloon, which is connected to a long rope, and view 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!", Ichinoseki City's official sightseeing site, or the official website of the convention for the latest information.

In fact, there is a chance to experience hot-air balloon boarding even outside the festival period. The Ichinoseki/Hiraizumi Balloon Festival Executive Committee offers balloon boarding throughout the year in Ichinoseki City, so please enjoy the seasonal scenery of Iwate, the Land of Gold, from the sky and experience the charm of Ichinoseki!
Boarding a moored balloon at the Balloon Festival ©2024 IBFO
Ichinoseki Hiraizumi Balloon Festival official website

Take your favorite train and lodging combination for a budget-friendly trip!

You can create your own original trip!

The " JR East View Dynamic Rail Package " is a variable-price individual travel product available only on the web, which allows you to choose your train and accommodations freely and make a reservation at once. Depending on the timing and conditions of your reservation, you may be able to save even on the day of departure at the earliest! We also offer one-day trip plans! We also offer one-day trip plans!

Click here for details

For train + accommodation reservations in the Iwate area, please visit [ JR East View Dynamic Rail Package ]
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