When the Adirondacks Look Up: Why the Adirondack Balloon Festival Still Captivates
The Adirondack Balloon Festival, a tradition for over half a century.
There are plenty of reasons to look toward the mountains in September. For four days each fall, however, one of the Adirondacks’ most enduring traditions gives visitors a reason to look considerably higher.
The Adirondack Balloon Festival, September 17–20, 2026, brings more than 60 hot air balloons to Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport in Queensbury, with an opening night at Crandall Park in Glens Falls. Now in its 53rd year, the hot air balloon festival has become a defining early-fall event in the Lake George region.
Its longevity is impressive. More interesting is how little the essential appeal has changed.
People still get up before dawn, bundle themselves into layers, contend with traffic and stand on an airfield waiting for something that Mother Nature may or may not permit. Then the burners fire, enormous balloons begin taking shape and, if the winds cooperate, dozens slowly lift over the foothills of the Adirondacks.
That moment explains a great deal about why thousands keep coming back.
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All types of shapes and sizes of hot air balloons at the Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival.
A festival that refuses to become ordinary.
Hot air balloon festivals aren't unique to the Adirondacks. However, watching balloons drift above a landscape of mountains, lakes and forests on the edge of fall most certainly feels different here.
The Adirondack Balloon Festival arrives at a particularly good moment in the region's calendar. Summer crowds have begun to thin, mornings carry a definite chill, and the first touches of autumn color are appearing across the southern Adirondacks.
The festival also occupies an interesting geographic sweet spot. Queensbury and Glens Falls sit at the southern gateway to the Adirondack Park, while Lake George is just minutes north. That makes the event accessible enough for a day trip from the Capital Region, yet well positioned for travelers turning the festival into a longer Adirondack weekend.
And unlike many large-scale attractions, the centerpiece remains refreshingly simple: people watching balloons fly.
The best show happens when the field wakes up.
The festival officially begins Thursday afternoon at Crandall Park in Glens Falls, where about 15 balloons are scheduled to launch between 5:30–6:15 pm, followed by a Moonglow at approximately 7:45 pm.
On Friday, the festival moves to Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport, where the scale changes dramatically. Gates open at 3 pm, with dozens of balloons scheduled to take flight between 5–6:15 pm.
But Saturday morning may provide the purest version of the experience.
An event worth getting up early for.
Gates open at 5 am for a 6:30 am mass ascension. The field is still dark when early arrivals begin gathering, coffee in hand and jackets zipped against the September chill. Then baskets appear, fabric spreads across the ground, and propane burners punctuate the predawn air.
Slowly, the airport becomes a landscape of color.
Saturday brings another scheduled flight from 5–6:15 pm, followed by the annual Airport Moonglow around 7:45 pm. Sunday offers one last 6:30 am launch before the festival closes at 10 am.
All balloon flights and Moonglows are wind and weather permitting—a caveat worth taking seriously rather than treating as festival fine print.
See the Adirondack Balloon Festival in motion.
The scale of the Adirondack Balloon Festival is difficult to capture in words alone. This footage shows what makes the Queensbury event so striking: dozens of hot air balloons lifting above the southern Adirondack landscape as the September sky begins to change.
Hot air balloons rise over Floyd Bennett Memorial Airport in Queensbury during the Adirondack Balloon Festival, one of the Lake George region’s signature early-fall events.
Seen from the airfield, the festival’s appeal becomes clear: the balloons are the spectacle, but the Adirondack landscape is what gives the spectacle its sense of place.
More than balloons fill the Queensbury airfield.
There is plenty happening while visitors wait for the skies to cooperate.
The Zonta Craft Fair brings more than 50 vendors to the airport, while food vendors serve the kind of festival fare that works particularly well outdoors on a crisp September day: pizza, barbecue and other portable favorites. Live music and kids' activities, including games and bounce houses, round out the weekend.
The crowds are notably democratic. Serious balloon enthusiasts mingle with photographers, families introducing children to their first mass ascension, longtime locals and travelers who have built an entire Lake George weekend around the festival.
Then there are the special-shape balloons—the whimsical counterpoint to the traditional jewel-colored envelopes and reliable crowd magnets whenever they begin to inflate.
Why the Adirondack setting changes the experience.
The festival's most memorable element isn't actually on the program.
It's the backdrop.
A balloon viewed against an empty blue sky is beautiful. A field of balloons floating toward Adirondack ridgelines as September begins turning the landscape toward autumn creates something much more rooted in place.
That combination also helps explain why the festival fits contemporary Adirondack travel so well. Increasingly, a fall trip isn't necessarily organized around a single attraction. Visitors might pair an early launch with breakfast in Glens Falls, spend the afternoon around Lake George, hike before an evening flight or make the festival one stop on a foliage weekend.
The balloons give people a reason to come. The region gives people reasons to stay.
ADK Taste pick.
The Moonglow deserves a place on an Adirondack fall bucket list.
Balloons remain tethered while pilots fire their burners, illuminating the envelopes from within against the night sky. It is less about flight than atmosphere: giant glowing forms, bursts of flame, music and a dark Adirondack September evening.
Bring a flashlight. The romance diminishes somewhat when attempting to locate the car in the dark.
Festival photo by Jason Hupe.
ADK Taste recommendations.
The most important advice is also the least glamorous: arrive early.
Peak traffic is expected from 5–9 am and 3–8 pm, and the event attracts thousands. Premium parking can sell out, while general parking and festival admission remain free.
Visitors should dress in layers, wear sturdy footwear and check the official festival website or Facebook page before leaving home. Weather can quickly alter or cancel balloon activities, even when conditions on the ground appear perfectly pleasant.
Dogs, drones and remote-control aircraft are not permitted. Camping and overnight RV parking are also prohibited on festival grounds.
Anyone hoping to book a balloon ride should know that the festival itself does not sell rides. Individual pilots may offer them independently, with information typically posted by festival organizers when available.
ADK Taste perspective.
Bird up!
After 53 years, the Adirondack Balloon Festival could easily survive on nostalgia. It doesn't have to.
Its staying power comes from the fact that the central experience remains unpredictable, communal and tied to the landscape. Visitors cannot summon a mass ascension on demand. The wind gets a vote.
In an era of carefully timed attractions and highly engineered travel experiences, there is something wonderfully Adirondack about thousands of people gathering outdoors before sunrise and waiting to see what the weather allows.
And when it allows 60-plus balloons to rise over the mountains, getting out of bed at 4-something suddenly seems entirely reasonable.
For more hand-picked places, events and stories worth building an Adirondack trip around, subscribe to In Good Taste, ADK Taste’s weekly guide to what’s worth eating, exploring and experiencing across the Park.
Suggested internal links
ADK Taste Lake George-area events or travel guide — link naturally from the discussion of turning the festival into a longer Lake George weekend.
ADK Taste fall foliage/events guide — link from the section about pairing the balloon festival with a September or fall-color getaway.
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