Most mornings, the sunrise is far and away the most spectacular sight in the sky. Today and Sunday, though, the fiery ball faces some stiff competition from colorful hot-air balloons being launched at the Color the Skies festival in Ripon.
The fourth annual event, which raises awareness and money for Children's Hospital Central California in Madera County, also includes fun runs, tethered balloon rides, a car show, musical entertainment, an aerobatic jet team, a pancake breakfast and more.
Both days' schedules start with the breakfast, which runs from 5:30 a.m. to noon. Entertainment and activities are staggered through the morning and into afternoon, but if you want to see the festival's focus — the inflation and launch of the balloons — you'll have to rise early (Slept in this morning? You still have Sunday). Inflation starts around 6:30 a.m., and all the balloons are aloft by 7:30, said Jessica Coleman, president of Color the Skies, the nonprofit group the runs the festival.
"Actually, the pilots want to go earlier than that, but they stick around for the spectators," said Coleman, who founded the festival with her husband, Greg.
How many balloons will there be? "We'll, we're shooting for 20, but I always say they're like herding cats," she said Thursday, "so right now, we have about 17. Yesterday, we lost one, but by the time of the festival, we could gain two. We have a lot of balloonists in the Central Valley and Northern California. The furthest, I believe, is coming from down in the Laguna Beach area."
The Colemans — Ripon residents and parents of two daughters, 9-year-old Gabrielle and 6-hear-old Sophia — used to live in Fresno and over the years have held various positions on the hospital's foundation and trustees boards. "Once we moved up here, we just stayed involved with it," Coleman said. "My husband currently is the chairman of the board of trustees. He's been involved with the hospital for about 15 years."
When the couple were looking to create an event in this area to benefit the hospital, they settled on the hot-air balloon festival.
"A balloon festival really reaches the people who would actually need the services of the hospital, rather than doing a benefit dinner, where people could go only if they can afford it," Coleman said. "This is something that is all about children, is really geared toward families, and will reach a mass amount of people. And, you know, balloons — people come from all over to see hot-air balloons. Not a lot of cities in the country have a hot-air balloon festival. So it's a way to reach a lot of people and so something good at the same time."
The two-day schedule is full of fun activities, including tethered balloon rides for $7. "The pilot doing the rides on Sunday brings extra-long cords and goes up 40 to 50 feet," Coleman said.
Today's highlights include a car show from 6 to 10 a.m., a 1-mile run at 7:30, a 5K run at 8, the Wild Wonders Animal Show at 8 and 10:15, a show by the Patriots civilian aerobatic jet team at 8:45, a performance by the YES (Youth Entertainment Stage) Company at 9:30 and a sky-diving demonstration at 10:30.
Sunday's highlights include the Patriots jet team at 8:45, the sky diving at 10:15, a performance by the Sun Kings, a Beatles tribute band, at 11 a.m. and the Color The Skies BBQ from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. For a full schedule, go to www.colortheskies.com.
"We try to stagger the entertainment on the stage so there's always something fun going on," Coleman said. "We're doing a wildlife program with Wild Wonders, out of L.A. They used to travel with Animal Planet. So while Mom and Dad are out running the 5K, the little kids can watch the animal show."
Admission to the festival — held at the Mistlin Sports Park, on East River Road off Jack Tone Road — is free, and parking is $5. Tickets to the pancake breakfast are $5 in advance (information at colortheskies.com), $7 at the door. Entertainment is free, and children's arts and crafts and bounce houses are $1. "Everybody can have a good time and not feel they have to spend a ton of money," Coleman said. "A lot of great businesses donate products, like Save Mart donates all of our food that we sell. Last year, we sold 1,700 pancake breakfasts. We try to go into it with keeping our costs low, and take it from there."
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