The annual Canberra Balloon Spectacular has been moved forward slightly next year. This year's was early in March but the one in 2025 will be from March 15 to March 23.
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The shift in date means that it will not coincide with the Enlighten Festival which runs from the end of February to March 10.
It also means that there is better chance of better weather for ballooners.
The venue will also change.
Next year, it will move back to its original site, the grassed area between Questacon and the National Portrait Gallery known as the John Dunmore Lang Lawns.
This area is larger than the part nearer Lake Burley Griffin used in March when the ACT government said that 42,006 people attended, a rise of 8 per cent from the 38,862 attendees in 2023.
The government said that a quarter came from interstate or overseas.
"With around 40 hot air balloons launching at dawn each day and hot breakfast and coffee available from the food trucks and coffee carts, the Canberra Balloon Spectacular generated a direct economic benefit of $2.1 million for the ACT," the ACT government stated.
Most of the balloons lifting off from the lawns at this year's spectacular carried three or four people although one chap took off alone in what appeared from below to be a dining chair with a propane tank strapped to it, offering a cheery wave to the crowd as he drifted away.
Steve Evans
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
Steve Evans is a reporter on The Canberra Times. He's been a BBC correspondent in New York, London, Berlin and Seoul and the sole reporter/photographer/paper deliverer on The Glen Innes Examiner in country New South Wales. "All the jobs have been fascinating - and so it continues."
