Expensive sport worth every second! Prelog hot air balloon festival delighted the visitors!

This weekend, with the hot August sun’s help and the surrounding greenery’s reflection, hot air balloons colored the sky above the Drava river. Because of this spectacle, thousands of visitors from various parts of Croatia, as well as Europe, came to Prelog to enjoy the scenes that remind everyone of the well-known Cappadocia.

Thanks to the Montgolfier brothers, who invented the flight of these balloons in 1783, we were all able to enjoy the third edition of the Prelog Hot Air Balloon Festival, which presented this expensive sport worth every second for four days.

Prelog Hot Air Balloon Festival, Photo: Adria.fun

Arriving in Međimurje, I couldn’t get out of my head the cult cartoon from the nineties, made by Burbank Animation Studios, in which the eccentric London inventor Willy Fog sets out on a trip around the world in a hot air balloon to prove that it can be traveled around in just 80 days. The sight that greeted me was beyond all my expectations, although I admit I felt more like Passepartout than Willy Fog, because as much as a picture is worth a thousand words, being there is something else entirely.

Prelog Hot Air Balloon Festival, Photo: Adria.fun

As you drive towards the location itself, more precisely the Prelog Marina on the reservoir lake Donja Dubrava, you don’t even see how many visitors have already gathered in one place. And then suddenly a shock, cars parked everywhere, some even a kilometer and a half away from the venue itself.

You go up to the dam, and when you’re there, heads on heads are looking in all directions, looking for a few hot air balloons that have risen to the heavens and started hunting the fox. “Mom, mom, see how beautiful and colorful they are,” says the little girl next to me to her mom, happily and with amazed eyes. Delight was indeed everywhere.

Prelog Hot Air Balloon Festival, Photo: Adria.fun

Even though I’m not really a fan of heights, flying in a hot air balloon came to mind more than once. Unfortunately, due to the height and reservations that had already been filled a long time ago, I did not have the opportunity to experience a flight with a hundred times more beautiful view than the one on the plane. But as if I was, because my drone was with me.

As soon as I arrived at the Marina, I looked for the best positions along the lake and the Drava river so that I could better, with photos, bring you an experience that you, too, must come to see next year.

Prelog Hot Air Balloon Festival, Photo: Adria.fun

The organization was truly colorful and exuberant, and as far as I hear it was just as great in the previous days of the festival, which started on August 29. Every day the program was filled with a good offer of food and drinks, performances by pilots and balloons, night illuminations, concerts, and various workshops for the youngest.

I found my salvation from hunger in langoustines, which were really filling and tasty, so waiting in a long line for the price of 5 euros was worthwhile

Prelog Hot Air Balloon Festival, Photo: Adria.fun

On the occasion of the festival, in addition to three teams from Balon Club Zagreb, as many as 33 international teams from Australia to Canada, and the United States arrived in Prelog, competing in the open championship. The competition was held this year for the first time, and the victory was won by Australian pilot Edward Saunders, to whom we congratulate him on his victory.

Prelog Hot Air Balloon Festival, Photo: Adria.fun

The third edition of the Hot Air Balloon Festival on Thursday, August 29, began with training sessions, a picnic, the opening of the festival and competition, and was followed by afternoon flights. On Friday, the Prelog airport was reserved for another round of flights, picnics, and the concert performed by singer Minea, which ended with fireworks.

The biggest spectacles, however, were reserved for Saturday and Sunday when, in addition to the performance of DJ Vedran Car and the concert of the amazing band Silente, visitors could also enjoy the Night Glow performance. In addition to night illuminations, hot air balloons lit up the already starry sky with their colorfulness.

There was no end to the enjoyment and delight, and I believe that next year will be the same, if not even better. See you, right?

This publication was co-financed by the Fund for the Promotion of Pluralism and Diversity of Electronic Media.