Qatar Balloon festival will take place at Old Doha Port from Jan 19

The Qatar Balloon festival will take place at its new venue at Old Doha Port, returning a year after it was halted as the country hosted the World Cup from November to December. As a part of this, fifty hot air balloons will fill the Doha skies from January 19 to 28.

The third edition of the festival will be a “fun-filled family event with a spectacular colourful display of over 50 Hot Air Balloons participating from around the world,” said the organiser of the event.

Among the notable participants bringing their specially-shaped hot air balloons are Lenny Cant from Belgium with her strawberry-themed hot air balloon; Torsten Sprenger from Germany, featuring his sunflower hot air balloon; Geert Van Wolvelaer from Turkiye will meanwhile bring his heart-shaped balloon.

Warley Macedo from Brazil, with his blue bird-themed balloon; Murilo Pereira Goncalves also from Brazil, with a green witch balloon; Lee Hooper from United Kingdom with an alien balloon; and Ashley Moore, also from the UK with a wolf balloon. 

Patrick Simmones from Belgium; Pevel Kostrhun, Czech Republic, Karim Raache, France; Cristophe Leray, France; Andreas Baus, Nills Romeling, from Germany; Aron Nyiri, Hungary; Paolo Oggioni, Italy; Albertas Kerdokas, Kestutis Petronis, Zydrunas Kazlauskas, Alfredas Reikertas, Romanas Mikelevicius, Tomas Olevsonas, Renatas Baranauskas, Silvija Grikienyte, and Rimas Kostiuskevicis, are also among the participants, all being from Lithuania.

Borche Paunovski, Macedonia; Anders Brobjer, Norway; Marek Michalec, Jacek Bogdanski, Krzysztof Borkowsiki, Eryk Czarkowski, from Poland; Matej Hrustinec, Slovakia; Andrej Senekovic, Slovenia; Dave Baker, Jonathan Dyer, Paul Wade, Chris Davies, Andrew Wallace, Martin Read, Glen Everett, John Viner, all from the United Kingdom; Steve Wilkinson, Patrick Fogue, United States; Hinnerk Rohrs, Germany; Bennoit Simeons, Belgium; and Lukasz Mikielewicz, from Qatar and a Qatar Tourism hot air balloon. 

With the help of the festival’s organisers and Qatar Tourism, a special offer has also been launched for anyone who wished to experience the thrill of flying in a hot air balloon.

A balloon flight may be reserved by interested parties for a discounted fee of QR499 per person until March 20. Limited seats are available and they are sold through the festival’s exclusive partner, asfary.com. This non-refundable ticket is good for a 30 to 45-minute morning balloon trip. The experience is available in the morning only, from January to March with some regional variations.