Old West Balloon Fest continues to draw economic dollars to Scotts Bluff County
SCOTTSBLUFF, Neb. (KOLN) - If you love watching hot air balloons, then you’ll want to check out the annual Old West Balloon Fest August 14-17 in the Scottsbluff-Gering area.
Colleen Johnson is the Executive Director of the Old West Balloon Fest. She said there’s another reason to be excited this year. According to a recent news release, the Balloon Federation of America (BFA) announced the location for the 2026-2027-2028 U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship to Scotts Bluff County, Nebraska.
“Following an extensive, four-month written bid proposal process and negotiations, The Old West Balloon Fest and Scotts Bluff County, NE were awarded the three-year contract to host the U.S. National Hot Air Balloon Championship (Nationals) for 2026, 2027, and 2028”, Johnson said.
The Nationals is an annual weeklong competition that brings together the top 50 hot air balloon pilots from across the United States as they compete to win the US National Championship. The purpose of the National competition is to choose the top three pilots who will attend the bi-annual World Championship.
“These championships were here in 2019 through 2021,” Johnson said. “We won the bid for them to come back, and so even thought the championships will start again in 2026, we will have a number of pilots coming back here to practice this year, so they can get a lay of the land and understand the weather conditions. The balloons in this competition are shaped different, and look more like a football. They are shaped this way to make them more stable to ascend and descend quickly.”
The regular balloons at Old West Balloon Fest are also a big draw.
“We call them the fun flyers,” Johnson said. “This is where the public can sometimes go up in a balloon. You can get up close to the balloons and ask pilots questions. This event means so much to the community because it brings tourists and visitors to our area, and they spend money. It’s really an economic boost.”
