The vintage home movie in this post is a very short clip from a 50 foot reel of Kodachrome which shows a group of people trying and succeeding in launching a Hot Air Balloon at a fete or show.
This film is actually a short sequence from another film on Vintage Home Movies which I've already published. That movie was about a military display in Aldershot, and this film was on the first side of the standard 8 reel. I don't know if it occurred at the same time as the military display however; It could have all been part of the same big show, or this sequence of a hot air balloon may have been taken on a completely separate occasion and at a different location.
I tried to find out a bit more about the balloon which was being launched, but, as is the case with many 8mm films, the definition is not good enough with my present scanner to read the writing on the balloon. It's possible that it was a display for the assembled crowd or an advertising stunt but it's more likely that the hot air balloon was there in order to take people for a quick ride around the surrounding area (or possibly just up and down again).
These days I quite often see the Virginmedia balloon taking people for a trip because it comes over our house in Stevenage on a regular basis when the weather is good, and I know ballooning has been known science for hundreds of years, but I wonder how often this sort of event occurred at fetes in the 1960 or 1970s? If anyone who views this has any experience of this or even an opinion, please get in touch using the comments form below.
