Taking Flight with the Lorraine Mondial Hot Air Balloon Festival
For more photos and videos from the hot air balloon festival and the record-breaking takeoff, check out the #lmab13, #mondialairballons and #chambley hashtags.
On July 31, 408 hot air balloons took to the skies in Chambley, France, as part of this year's Lorraine Mondial international hot air balloon festival. The event was a successful attempt to set a world record for a mass hot air balloon takeoff. This was actually the second record broken at the festival this year, as the prior record of a 343-balloon takeoff was also set earlier in the festival.
Despite poor weather conditions forcing the cancellation of more than half of the planned mass takeoffs, over 350,000 people came out to watch the flights throughout the festival. Nearly 1,000 hot air balloons were estimated to be in attendance.
