InTouch Credit Union Plano Balloon Festival

Fight massive traffic jams, search high and low for parking spots to watch some hot air balloons float around. They’re really more of a backdrop for socializing than a main event because there’s not much to see. Bring friends or leave disappointed.

The organizer of this event needs to find another venue to do future balloon festivals. Plano is too dense to hold an event with thousands of people trying to enter the Plano venue. Horrible parking, crazy traffic and it’s 1.3 miles walk to venue from the parking area (not good for elderly folks and small children.) It’s not worth it my friends. You would be better off staying home sipping a glass of iced tea in your backyard.

We came here later on in the day for the fireworks. The weather had affected the entire festival and we were following the situation on social media. Credit to the festival for providing accurate and current real time information on those sources.
Spring Creek was closed so we had to park really far away in a strip mall. At least the parking was free in that sense. It was literally a one mile walk down to the festival gate. It was an easy relatively flat walk, but crowded even though the street was shut down and the path was wide. There was also a large crowd exiting at the time.
Once there, the ticket buying process was easy and quick (if you had cash, the credit card line was really long). Inside the festival, there were the usual food vendors, giveaways, and a great cover band. The festival was much larger than I expected but we were able to find a spot on the sloped hill to watch the fireworks. The show was great and lasted about 15 minutes. I am glad we only went for the shorter amount of time.

I AM SO DISAPPOINTED.
The first time I came to see the Plano Hot Air Balloon festival was the best experience I had ever had. It was before it became the huge money hungry event it is today.
The first time I went we were able to park at the parking lot right next to the park and walk less than a mile to pick a spot to sit and watch the Hot Air Balloons.
We arrived early in the morning, around 6 am to watch the Hot Air Balloons light up in the early morning darkness. It was the coolest experience watching all the Hot Air Balloons light up and then go up in the air with the sunrise in the background.
This year I went for the second time, and I was incredibly disappointed.
I felt like the main focus was more on the race than the actual Hot Air Balloons.
Even if the balloons didn’t go up because of the weather, it was not as enjoyable as that first great experience.
I will never come back.

This is a massive cluster. It’s pointless if you don’t have kids. Hot air balloons, cool. That’s literally all you pay to see. The parking situation is outrageous and the police presence is fee and far between. They don’t sell alcohol either. It’s a solid family event, but not for anyone without a family between the ages of 21 – 32.

Skip it, just not worth the effort for what you get out of it. Parking was a pain because there was no information that Spring Creek is closed at Jupiter, so if you come from 75, your only option is Plano Centre parking. Its the cheaper $ 5 parking (vs $ 10) but you’ll walk about a mile starting across a hill and field that’s not stroller friendly. How about a parking map on the website?
We got there at 10:30, and most vendors were just barely setting up, even though it opened at 7. The food options are very, very minimal — it’s like a couple of the shady state fair booths, nothing creative or exciting or different, just corn dogs, nachos, lemonade. Maybe some food trucks next time?
The «rides» mentioned on the website are just 5 – 6 dirty bounce houses and one small spinning teacup thing. There are better rides at a grocery store parking lot carnival — like the scummy one that pops up near Valley View mall.
Zero hot air balloon themed things to see or do outside of the morning and night launches. Unless you want your kids up late or early, you can’t even tell it’s balloon related if no one told you.
Just overpriced cheap carnie food, bad parking, crummy «rides», and like 5 vendors selling junk toys. You’ll sweat a lot, your feet will hurt, and you’ll never see a hot air balloon. The little guy did love seeing the police and firemen, but that was it.

Be a Volunteer. I did not know anyone. Had a blast. The best view of the fireworks with complete strangers. We laughed. Had access to everything. Back roads. All you could eat and drink in the tents after. It is what old rich people do apparently. «never grow up and teenagers like you need to wait to have kids» is what one guy said to me. Yep. I will take that. The bicycle cops said I needed to move to plano bc it is the safest city in America. I did not have the heart to tell him I sold my house there bc I was bored out of my mind.
Oh, so if you want to be lame and pay to get in and wait in traffic and share space with every person known to North Texas, then get there early. Side notes… they never launch at night bc of visual safety at night. So if you want to see something other than sky divers and glows, hit the morning launches.

Lame. Drove all the way out here, for the balloon launch, balloon glow, and fireworks, and the hot air balloons didn’t even fly! Parking is $ 5 – 10 and a long mile trek each way. The roads are chaotic. My plan arrival was for 6pm, took til 7pm to get in the festival. No balloons in the sky, thought the launch was suppose to be at 6pm. Thought, «Maybe it’s just takes a while to get 45 balloons in the sky.» Then announcer comes on talking about the balloon glow, «ok, maybe their gonna do everything at once». Announcer then comes back on, «the pilots are gonna fire up». Me, «Woohoo, the balloons are gonna start going up» — wrong, the pilots messed around with their flame making the balloons «glow» up. This was it for about 20mins. Then the announcer said «thanks for coming, the fireworks will be on shortly» …45 mins later, fireworks. Glad we decided to make the mile trek back to the car then watch the fireworks from the car. They were lame, mostly definitely compared to the Rangers stadium fireworks we’d since the night before. Glad we only wasted $ 5 each. Plus side, we got some exercise. I thought a hot balloon festival meant balloons in the sky, never mind. Must be me.

We attended on 9÷18÷2015. Nice, enjoyable Friday evening with family. Enjoyed lots of handouts/​free bees, and the Balloon Glow was nice tonight (which some years it’s been bad or bits cancelled due to weather or wind conditions unexpectedly affecting event). People are friendly, crowd control was good this year, and the kids had smiles on their faces. Traffic leaving this year was easy! We zipped back to 75 in no time.
I liked they changed the flow of traffic and parking (My advice is to park at the college campus, we had to hunt for spaces and ended up following a dozen cars to the wrong side of the park with no parking). We parked in the $ 10 area and walked down (the terrible hill, that I manage to fall on every year — so be careful wear tennis shoes). If you do the $ 5 parking, and walk down spring creek — No hill! Which is really a nicer walk. Paid $ 5 for admission per person, then $ 2 per ticket for bounce houses and minimal carnival rides.

If you have never been to me it’s worth going. I grew up coming here as I lived right in Plano. Come out and get some beautiful photos of the pretty balloons taking off. It is one for the entire family. Yes, parking is hectic and definitely a pain because everyone and their grandmother wants to go. But there’s always fun booths set up and just a cool outdoor event as the weather begins to cool down from the hot summer heat. They also are now hosting a 5k and half marathon event which I definitely plan on being a part of this year! It’s one you will want to put on your bucket list for the fall.

Went at sunrise and dusk and saw balloon launch both times. My kids loved the whole up close Balloon glow. Be sure to bring bug spray because it is a field and sunscreen due to little shaded areas. Unbelievable experience for a $ 5 entrance fee.

So a few pros and cons about this place. Definitely recommend if you haven’t been here before, but I don’t quite have the enthusiasm (or the stamina) to make the trek here year after year.
Pros:
+ gorgoeus pictures
+ mini fair
+ great family fun
Cons:
— parking — especially a long trek if you come a bit late
An alternate suggestion (if you don’t have the energy to make it all the way down.) You can see a great deal of the balloons from anywhere in the night sky. So you can probably get a minor glance from other places.

This festival sucks walnuts. By far the worst festival I have ever been to… I just don’t understand why people love showing up to this big cluster f*** of an event.
For a City to have such a major event with little police to control traffic, we found ourselves waiting over an hour just to get to 75 Central Expressway and Spring Creek. Once you get there, traffic still was horrendous… I live in Richardson, and I felt like I was going to Austin or something. You don’t get any police presence until you are right up at the park… and by then fighting for a parking space was not even worth it.
In addition, the website for the festival SUCKS with no maps or anything to give us an idea where to park. Then you expect us to walk a good 30 – 40 minutes on foot just to see some balloons go up? Are you kidding me!!!
We just said F this and went over to the Octoberfest Festival in Addison… Which took us only 15 minutes to find parking. Ah yeah, they have alcohol. That’s right. Who the hell has an event like that with no booze?
Every other festival in the area, whether it be Wildflower, Cottonwood, or even Addison with the Taste of Addison and Octoberfest… ALL HAVE good traffic control.
I will never go to this event. 5 dollar parking for a 30 minute hike… Then you have to pay to get in and then stupid lemonade is as close to a buzz as you can get. Why is this festival still even popular!!!

Major disappointment. Drove an hour to get there and walk around some street vendors– hardly a «festival». Cost $ 5 to get in and it puts your straight onto a grassy hill to trek down. Since it’s a family event and 90% of the people have young children or strollers, a steep hill isn’t an ideal entrance. Once you get down there are a handful of vendors. You can walk through the entire thing in about 10 minutes and won’t see any hot air balloons unless you are there during the takeoff and landing. We were hoping the balloons would make up for everything else, but they decided it was too windy after blowing up 8 balloons. They told everyone they could come down and look at the balloons on the ground. I don’t understand why they couldn’t just tether the balloons and let them go up a couple hundred feet so people could see what they went to see.

We have been going to this festival for years now. Each year the experience seems to fall short. This year it seems like they have hit rock bottom. The main disappointment is the volunteers of all things… a bunch of sad people who were mannerless and outright rude. This is definitely our last year, never again would I subject my family to such a poor outing.
Disappointed.

What a big downer! My wife and I were so disappointed in this so-​called festival. $ 5.00 for the entrance fee, $ 10.00 for parking and then the «Texas State Fair» priced food and drinks. The balloon launch was ½ hour late and then… all of 5 balloons and the «show» was over. We waited around until 7:30 since we couldn’t believe that was it. What a joke!

Great time. The prices are not great but not bad. Balloons show twice a day as indicated in all instructions. Those who complained did not read. The balloons are victims to the weather if it is too strong to launch safely they don’t. Any complaints on that talk to Jesus. If you come next year go early to walk around leisurely bring blankets and umbrellas and make a day of it. It can be a wonderful day of fun for the whole family. Parking is ample be prepared to walk if you come late. All in all the event logistics are amazing you can get in and out rather quickly when you think about the amount of folks there it’s mind blowing. If I’m here next year I would defiantly come again.

Disappointed in the Plano Balloon Festival. Parking ranges from $ 5 to $ 10. If you park in the $ 5 lot be prepared for a mile long walk. They have guys on bikes that will take you to the entrance gate for a fee. Traffic was a nightmare as well. The cost to get in was $ 5 per person.
There are a lot of vendors, sponsor booths giving away freebies and lots of food. There is a kids zone with carnival rides. Nothing exciting like the Texas State Fair.
Now the balloons. Only one inflated and actually took off on Friday night. Seriously… wth. I see more hot air balloons taking off in McKinney on the weeekends. Later on in the evening all the balloons left on the ground inflated and put on a light show as the pilots turned on the hot air. That was probably the only highlight of the festival.
IMHO, this festival is nice to experience once but that’s all. I doubt I will be back next year.

If you came in the middle of the day, it’s like a street fair: many vendors, plenty of junk good.
Daytime parking is not a problem, I am fearing it in the evening…
The biggest problem is that nobody has a clear information: which parking is the closest? Police doesn’t know Orwell can bring food from outside … when will they start setting up the balloon for the evening launch… There is no parking map.
The printed festival map doesn’t indicate gate location/​number.
I hope the glowing balloons will be worth the effort.

I look forward to this one every year. As a photographer, I cannot wait to beat the crowds and arrive at 5am. I love the mist and wet grass and the lazy vans pulling into the launch area. My heart beats with anticipation to watch the pilots setup. I live for moment like these. Stay away from the crowds if possible and don’t park near the festival. I like to park in a surrounding neighborhood and ride my bike in. ;)

Not enough stars for me. It was simply beautiful i love he sky anyway
No they didnt launch but just to see the activity is well worth it pic are on the way
It ends on Sunday