Good to Be Back: Steamboat Springs Hot Air Balloon Festival July 2023
It's more than just a festival, it's a "Rodeo," so when Steamboat's Hot Air Balloon Festival didn't happen in 2022, many were disappointed. The summer of 2023 in Colorado will see the beauty and majesty of those aircrafts return to Routt County.
The Steamboat Hot Air Balloon Rodeo dates back over 40 years, to 1981, usually happening the weekend after the 4th of July. With new organizers comes a new date. Will we see new hot air balloons, too?
In 2019, Steamboat's newspaper, the Steamboat Pilot & Today, took over running one of Colorado's most spectacular hot air balloon festivals, after the town's Chamber of Commerce stepped away from the event. In 2022, just three years in to owning the event, the Pilot announced that they just didn't have the staffing and resources to put on the event, and it had to be cancelled.
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WHAT IS THE NEW NAME OF STEAMBOAT'S HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL?
According to the Steamboat Pilot & Today, the event is now the Yampa Valley Balloon Rodeo. You have to like the way that sounds; it helps to represent the entire area of Steamboat and the beauty that is the Yampa Valley.
THE 2023 YAMPA VALLEY HOT AIR BALLOON FESTIVAL
- July 27-29 (Pilot's Dinner of Friday July 27)
- Bald Eagle Park
- Free
- Balloon Lifts in the mornings of July 28 and 29 (weather permitting.)
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