Balloonfest
June 13, 2018 8:19 PM   Subscribe

A lesson in foresight: Balloonfest—about the Doomed Cleveland Balloonfest of 1986. Release 1.5 Million Helium Balloons at the same time? To raise funds for charity, to raise Cleveland's civic pride, and get the city into the Guinness Book of World Records? That's a Great Idea! What could possibly go wrong? This post features old-school local news footage, murmurations of balloons, the mysteries of atmospheric science in 1986, maritime tragedies, and Cleveland. \\ Happy footage. "Let the Bad Memories Fade Away." \\ [via The Atlantic and Jessamyn]
posted by not_on_display (21 comments total) 22 users marked this as a favorite
 
as god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly
posted by mwhybark at 8:34 PM on June 13, 2018 [17 favorites]


Happy footage

I get why people would want to do this. But watching that, I was thinking “Isn’t this just organized littering?”
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:40 PM on June 13, 2018 [8 favorites]


Someone really didn't think this one through at all.
posted by Sphinx at 8:44 PM on June 13, 2018 [3 favorites]


Oh, Jesus. The last 30 seconds of the “Balloonfest” video. WHERE DID YOU THINK THE BALLOONS WENT?

On a serious note, the whole snafu fucked up a Coast Guard search for missing people.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:51 PM on June 13, 2018


OK, I have a question: who was the first "Uncle Sam on stilts?"
posted by rhizome at 9:09 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


Most of the balloons ended up in Canada. That's not what NAFTA was for. I hope we saved them so we can deliver them back to the White House lawn.

Somebody already used the flying turkey meme. I'm not bitter.
posted by ashbury at 9:26 PM on June 13, 2018 [1 favorite]


OK, I have a question: who was the first "Uncle Sam on stilts?"
I'm leaning towards Peter Schumann, founder of the Bread and Puppet Theater.
posted by unliteral at 9:48 PM on June 13, 2018 [2 favorites]


The video claims the record wasn't recognized, but this article claims that the record was at least in the 1988 version of the Guinness Book of World Records.
posted by Pyry at 3:15 AM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


I was a teenager in Cleveland when this happened and even at the time this struck me as wasteful, nonsensical, and irresponsible. I had grown up on a steady diet of anti-litter propaganda yet it felt like the adults had learned nothing.
posted by Western Infidels at 4:44 AM on June 14, 2018 [6 favorites]


Came for WKRP reference; stayed for Canadian litter on the White House lawn.
posted by allthinky at 5:00 AM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]


Everything about that first link is amazing.

"Cleveland will no longer be the butt of jokes!"

"I want to sing Up, Up and Away!"

"Two days later the bodies of the two fishermen were found."

*awkward pause after newscaster signs off*

The launch really is an amazingly beautiful thing. I only wish it were in modern, HD video instead of muted 80s TV. The fact that they didn't quite see that there might be a huge downside to the event though, is kind of hard to believe. The newscaster at the end even said "only 10 percent of the balloons were estimated to land in the lake" which sort of speaks to the mentality back then. "Oh, we're only going to pollute the lake with 150,000 balloons. No big deal."
posted by bondcliff at 6:22 AM on June 14, 2018 [2 favorites]


I first learned about this on The Dollop podcast episode about it but I never looked for pictures or video of it and this makes it seem even crazier than it did listening to the story. The mass of balloons looks organic like an alien or blob coming to eat a town in a bad science fiction movie.

"No one's quite sure where they went but at least they're no longer posing a threat to fish and wildlife and they're not littering the lake" Yeah I guess they just vanished. I sure am glad we don't have to worry about litter now that we can't see it anymore.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 8:15 AM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


Facepalm at: "The balloons that were covering the lake yesterday are not here today. No one knows where they went, but at least they aren't posing a threat to fish and wildlife."

They just magically disappeared into the environment, I guess.
posted by Mr. Big Business at 9:00 AM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


FUN TIMES IN CLEVELAND TODAAAAAY
posted by pxe2000 at 10:15 AM on June 14, 2018


Anyone else find it super weird/creepy that the local newscaster decided to plant a kiss on the lips of the woman he was interviewing (1:24)?
posted by el io at 1:40 PM on June 14, 2018 [2 favorites]


I found everything about the wacky news people super weird and creepy. And LOUD. It was the same time that Richard Dawson was kissing anyone he could on Family Feud every day, but I also found that super creepy.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 2:23 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


I'm not from Cleveland but the civic inferiority complex on display feels very familiar.
posted by RobotHero at 2:53 PM on June 14, 2018 [3 favorites]


I experienced a similar vibe when I lived in San Jose, CA.
posted by rhizome at 3:16 PM on June 14, 2018 [1 favorite]


I get why people would want to do this. But...

I'm glad to see that someone was at least willing to acknowledge the human motivation behind the event.
posted by fairmettle at 3:19 AM on June 15, 2018


Grandpa, what was 1986 America like?

Basically, stuff like this and the movie Top Gun, over and over again.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:23 AM on June 15, 2018


Also the Challenger exploding.

It truly was morning again in America.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 9:28 AM on June 15, 2018


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