Vredefeesten in Sint-Niklaas

For the second time already, we were invited to come to Sint-Niklaas in Belgium in September 2007 - it's just like always, the ones who behave may return... ;-)

One day before the event already, Bastian and Matthias took the long road to Flanders with their Sheep and Penguin.

After a ten hours journey (with breaks) we arrived - and the joy at seeing each other again led us to putting up the sheep in Luc De Wulf's garden.

After that, we enjoyed the hospitality of the De Wulfs until late in the evening, when we went to bed - which was, of course, covered with balloon bed linen ;-)

The next day, we took to town - and Matthias and Basti had a date with the man the town is named after, St. Nicholas himself! The larger-than-life statue is standing in front of the city hall of Sint-Niklaas.

At the feet on the saint the "Grote Markt" stretches over 200 meters long and 100 meters wide, which makes it the largest market place in Belgium.

That weekend, the market place belonged to the balloons. The first launch of the big balloons marked the start of the event on Friday afternoon.

In the evening, it was the model balloons' turn: Martin Kaiser with his Fox, Matthias with Martin Eutermoser's blue Elephant and Bastian with his Sheep.

As Martin Eutermoser didn't want to travel the long way, but the Elephant should take part in the event nevertheless, we changed balloons and passed the Penguin on to a Belgian pilot of Luc's team.

The night glow on Friday evening brought a romantic atmosphere to the market place - and already at the packing of the balloons afterwards, new friendships were made.

Thanks to the PrimaGaz team for the "Cola Light" and the funny evening! ;-)

The ballooning programme on Saturday began with the launch of two gas balloons.

In the afternoon, it was the model balloons again - and though it was quite windy, all pilots managed to put up their special shapes.

Apart from Penguin, Elephant, Fox and Sheep, there was an owl, a clown, a snowman, the Fire Bunny, a box, a Viking head and a panda bear.

Wouter Geurs and Bram De Wulf from Deinze (Belgium) were flying the Penguin.

Matthias was quite busy with the Elephant. The audience enjoyed the model balloons very much and many of the pilots fondly sniffed at the crowd with their animal balloons.

The Fox has caught the scent - Martin Kaiser and son Jakob hold him back.

In between, the launch of the big balloons took place - perfectly organised just as the complete event. As only eleven balloons fit on the launch field at a time, they launch in four waves - once one wave has taken off, the next teams start to inflate.

In the evening, winds were low - just perfect for the model balloons.

After nightfall, the city hall of Sint-Niklaas became the setting for a over 30-minute fantastic fire and light show.

On Sunday, the model balloons had no more appearance - time for us to relax and enjoy the event, for example the many special shapes present.

One of the highlights this year was the big Piper of Muir Moffat from the UK.

The last highlight of the event was the gala dinner on Sunday evening, for which we had brought our best dress to Belgium :-)

The organisers were agreed: The model balloons will definitely be an inherent part of the Vredefeesten in the future, either in a one year or a two year cycle (which has yet to be defined)... but we will definitely return here, be sure!!! =)

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