Great Reno Balloon Race Canceled Friday Due To Weather Conditions

The Great Reno Balloon Race has been canceled for Friday due to weather conditions and safety issues. They are expected to resume Saturday if weather allows it.

UPDATE: Officials announced Friday morning The Great Reno Balloon Race has been canceled for the day due to weather conditions, including lightning, and safety issues. They are encouraged by weather conditions for the weekend and expect great flying Saturday and Sunday

Officials with the event sent out this tweet Friday morning:

The Great Reno Balloon Race is back this year, and organizers are expecting big crowds at Rancho San Rafael Regional Park over the next three days.

“Come on out, get here early, there’s lots of room to spread out,” said Executive Director Pete Copeland. “We actually have some new blanket areas you can find on our website. We’ve added some new areas for folks to spread out, we have vending set up all through the park so you can find that cup of coffee if you need it, and just come out and enjoy yourself.”

About a hundred hot air balloons will be taking to the Reno skies over the next few days.

Some are old favorites, returning to this event year after year. Others are here for the first time, and there are some new shaped balloons that will be joining in the festivities this weekend.

Dawn patrol has expanded into Friday – that’s the special show that features those handful of balloons qualified to fly in the dark – and there will be glow shows, mass ascension launches, and all kinds of vendors along Balloon Boulevard.

This is the 40th year for the event; it’s the largest free hot air ballooning event in the world, and it has an international draw.

“People come from all over the world, we have a pilot that made it from Switzerland this year,” Copeland said. “With everything going on, they made it from Switzerland. It’s definitely an international flavor, maybe not as much this year, but its history is bringing in international pilots and we definitely have a list of international pilots for next year.”

Gates open at 3:30 a.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday and the RTC is running free buses from the Reno-Sparks Convention Center from 4 a.m. to 10 a.m. those days.