HAMILTON - Wairarapa and Hamilton will both be holding hot air balloon fiestas, but the timing clash and organisational acrimony that marred the 1999 Waikato event are unlikely to be repeated this time.
Instead of going head-to-head, the two fiestas will be several weeks apart, with the four-day Wairarapaevent starting with 27 balloons on March 22.
The Hamilton fiesta, which has received $150,000 of sponsorship from the WEL Energy Trust and $60,000 from the Hamilton City Council, will run from April 12 to 16. So far, 25 balloon pilots have indicated they will come.
Last year, political squabbles over money for the Hamilton event prompted a major sponsor, Agfa, to put its money behind theballoon fiesta in the Wairarapa instead.
Veteran Hamilton festival organiser Graham Hannah quit less than a month before the fiesta was due to start because of frustration over limited council funding, but the business community raised money for a scaled-down event.
Agfa committed itself to the Wairarapa event for two years, but will also give some sponsorship to the Hamilton event this time in the form of film and processing for official photos. It will also send its balloon, in the shape of a film cannister.
Agfa marketing services manager Robyn Pickerill said the company would consider taking a larger sponsorship role in Hamilton in future years.
The Balloons Over Waikato Charitable Trust has been set up to oversee the event this year and the WEL Energy Trust sponsorship will allow the popular night glow display to be be free.
Organiser Kim Griffith said she considered the two events to be complementary but hoped that next time they would have a shorter time gap between them.
That would make it easier for overseas pilots to go to both events.
Mr Hannah, who is organising the Wairarapa fiesta, said it would have been great if the WEL Energy Trust had come to the rescue of the Hamilton event last year.
