Monroe Life Balloon Festival

08/30/2026

Join us this year for a special guest, Wes Stowers, as he flies his North American AT-6D "Texan"

The “Texan” served as the advanced trainer for Army Air Force and Navy fighter pilots during World War II as well as in numerous other roles, including combat operations as a forward air control aircraft in the Korean War

Specifications:
Top Speed - 225 MPH
Service Ceiling - 25,000 feet
Engine - 600 HP Pratt & Whitney R-1340 supercharged 9-cylinder air-cooled radial
Original armament - 3 x Browning .30 caliber machine guns
(two forward-firing, one tail gun in a flexible mount), hardpoints for 2x 250 lb. bombs or rockets
Fully Aerobatic

History of this particular aircraft:
- Built in 1943
- Served as a Navy gunnery trainer at Kingsville NAS, Texas from 1943-1945
- Served as a Navy flight trainer at Pensacola NAS, Florida from 1945-1949
- Upgraded by the U.S. Air Force to AT-6D specifications in 1955 and given to Spain
- Served as a ground attack fighter and trainer in the Spanish Air Force from 1955-1980
- Repatriated to the United States in 1981 and restored to its present configuration as a U.S. Air Force trainer of the late 1940s/early 1950s

Get your tickets today and see this plane up close and watch it fly in and fly out from the Monroe County Airport!

The Monroe Life Balloon Festival is a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Monroe County on Labor Day weekend.

08/20/2026

Join us this Labor Day weekend for East Tennessee's largest balloon festival. We've got hot air balloons, planes, exotic cars, kids fun zone, and so much more.

Get your tickets here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monroe-life-balloon-festival-tickets-1993631400185

08/17/2026

Mike Wahl releases the small helium balloon and watches carefully as it twists and turns in the air currents. He needs to know what direction the wind is blowing at all different altitudes. The information is critical if he’s going to win the balloon rally.

Mike boards his hot air balloon with his crew member and fires his burners, causing it to rise off the ground. Their target is a tall pole in the far distance with a key on the top. The competing balloonists will go one at a time and whoever grabs the key wins the event and gets one step closer to the rally’s $10,000 prize.

Navigating a hot air balloon is not easy. There’s no way to directly control where it is going as the balloon will always travel in the same direction as the wind. Fortunately, the wind is often blowing in different directions at different altitudes, so pilots can raise and lower the balloon to reach air currents moving in the direction they want. This is why Mike released the balloon earlier. Navigating this way takes experience, intuition, and some luck.

Eventually, Mike and his crew member reach the pole, but precision flying in a balloon is difficult, and they have trouble getting low enough to grab the key. Fortunately, there’s another option. Each balloonist in the rally was given a numbered bean bag to throw at the X at the base of the pole. The bags that land are scored from the pole at the X outward, with the closest three winning descending cash prizes.

Unable to reach the key, Mike and his crew member look for the bean bag… only to realize that they’ve somehow left it behind, meaning they have no way to win the competition. Panicking, they begin throwing random objects overboard instead—gloves, bags, whatever is loose in the basket. Finally, the wind carries them away from the pole and they have to land.

At the end of the competition, when all the results have been measured, the judges return with a handful of bean bags dropped by other pilots… and a pile of random objects from Mike’s balloon.

“Here’s all the stuff you dumped,” the judge says.

Mike asks if their creative solution still counts, and the judges inform him that he has won second place. Over the years, Mike would go on to win countless other rallies but never in quite so unique a way as this.

Get your tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monroe-life-balloon-festival-tickets-1993631400185

08/17/2026

Tabatha Rainwater flies “π in the sky” hot air balloon. She will be joining us from Knoxville, Tennessee. Go Vols! Fun fact: Tabatha has previously attended this event with her family before becoming a hot air balloon pilot!

Get your tickets below and come see this awesome balloon in person!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monroe-life-balloon-festival-tickets-1993631400185

08/17/2026

Learn more about pilot Fred Poole and come see his balloon this labor day weekend!

Fred Poole has a long history in aviation. He is a skydiver with over 700 jumps, a fixed wing pilot with a seaplane rating and of course a commercial hot air balloon pilot. His company Champagne Sunrise operates out of Meridian Mississippi and has taken hundreds of passengers for rides over the years. No stranger to adventure his wife Lori is a certified skydiver with over 200 jumps and his son Devon is a Open Water certified SCUBA diver, both are an integral part of the balloon crew and support Champagne Sunrise every flight.

Fred Poole soared above the Leon International Balloon Festival in Mexico, five black limousines tailing him from the ground. This flight, he was with the wife of a Mexican governor, and the limousines were the chase crew, the people who would pick them up at the end of the flight.

Fred was looking for a place to land, but the balloon had drifted over a local zoo. He asked his passenger if it was okay for them to land there.

She laughed and said, “Yeah, I’m on the board of directors. I think it’s okay.”

The balloon set down in the safari exhibit, inside one of the enclosures, scattering herds of gazelles and zebras. Eventually, the zoo workers—who must have been surprised to see a hot air balloon landing in their zoo—came to help them out. It’s one of Fred’s favorite memories from his 13 years in ballooning, or as he calls it “the smile business,” that is, the business of making other people happy. It’s why his balloon is called Joy.

I ask him how he got started and he says, “I literally woke up one day and decided I was going to fly hot air balloons.” Before this, he piloted planes and did skydiving. One day, he heard about a balloon festival near his home in Mississippi and became interested. He reached out to the festival and found an instructor.

“The rest is history,” said Fred. “It’s an adventure every time you fly.”

08/09/2026

Benjamin Eakes, a hot air balloon pilot from Meridian Mississippi. I fell in love with aviation as a young child and always found myself looking to the skies. I graduated college with my FAA Airframe and Power Plant license in 2014 and started a career in general aviation specializing in corporate and business jet maintenance. During my time in college I had the opportunity to have my first exposure to a hot air balloon and I fell in love! One evening in 2018 I was approached and asked if I wanted to wake up early and come help crew for a balloon. I was immediately excited because it had been some years since the last time I was around one.

The pilot I met that morning was Fred Poole. He was very patient and instructed me on the operation of his balloon and what I needed to do. Little did I know that would be the start of a life long journey for me. I found myself crewing for him more and more and one day he told me “get in!” Shocked at the opportunity, I hopped right on in the basket and before I knew it we were gracefully floating through the air. I knew from that moment I wanted to be a hot air balloon pilot!

After crewing for several years off and on,Fred told me to get a log book and he would teach me to fly as long as I crew for him.I did not even have to think about that because it was a great opportunity. I dedicated my time to crewing every weekend, traveling the country when he had different events or festivals. One thing I learned quickly is that crewing is not for the faint of heart! My flight training began in spring of 2023, and I worked hard. I gained flight hours every chance I could get. During these flights I tried to absorb as much information as possible. After many flight lessons in a Kubicek 120 I was finally told it’s time for me to really look at getting a balloon of my own. In the fall of 2023 I purchased my first hot air balloon a, Thunder and C**t AX8-90.

With the assistance of my great instructor and family of friends the name of “Silver Switch” was decided. I had many more lessons flying my balloon and gained more confidence with every flight. I received my private pilots license in June of 2024. I am a firm believer that crewing before you learn to fly is the best way to learn. My journey from crewing for the first time to now being a pilot has given me so much more respect for the crew. Our sport of flying is not possible without a dependable crew. I am looking forward to a life full of flights and adventure. I highly encourage anyone who is interested to get with a pilot and start the journey for themselves. The sky is the limit!

08/09/2026

Bill has been married to his wife Martha for 48 years. They have 2 daughters, Jenny and Maggie. Jenny is a regional manager for a fitness chain and mother of our three grandkids. Maggie is a Delta Airlines pilot and is married to a FedEx pilot.

Bill started flying in 1978. He currently has over 2300 hours. He was a full time balloonist from 1978 to 1991. He sold balloons, champagne flights, corporate tethers, banner flights and cold air inflatables. He also flew corporate balloons for Seven-Up, Red Lobster, Holiday Inn, Budweiser, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, United Van Lines, Refco Commodities and others.

He started flying national and international competitions in 1981. He has had 17 top 5 finishes out of 25 events including #1 twice in 3 North American Championships, a 3rd and a 7th in 3 World Championships and a 5th in the U.S. National Championships.

08/04/2026

Special thanks to this year's balloon meister.

Skip Durham, aka “The Skipper,” and Toni Durham, aka “the Crew Chief,” met in the summer of 2009. When Skip told her that he owned a hot air balloon, Toni thought, either he really owns one or that’s the greatest pickup line I’ve ever heard.

Toni said, “I tell people, I fell in love with the balloon, I fell in love with ballooning, and you have to have a pilot, right? So, Skip was part of the package deal.”

The couple married in 2011, and in 2012, they founded their company, Bluff City Balloons, LLC. Since then, they’ve had all sorts of adventures from taking skydivers two miles into the sky and watching them jump out of the basket, to accidentally landing—twice—on the estate of actor Steven Seagal. The balloon they are bringing to the festival is one of only six in the country specially outfitted for people with special needs including people with wheelchairs.

Get your tickets today:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/monroe-life-balloon-festival-tickets-1993631400185

07/27/2026

Make the night even more spectacular by getting VIP tickets! VIP guests get access to a better viewing area in the VIP tent, better parking, a pilot meet and greet, and dinner provided by LongHorn Steak House.

07/23/2026

Come enjoy beautiful hot air balloons, exotic cars and planes, live music, a petting zoo, kids fun zone, and plenty of delicious food! This year's event is going to be bigger than ever! Stay tuned for our performing artist announcement soon.

Get your tickets here

The Monroe Life Balloon Festival is a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Monroe County on Labor Day weekend.