Saudi Al-Ula Celebrates Guinness World Record For Longest Hot Air Balloon Glow Show

Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website
Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website
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Saudi Al-Ula Celebrates Guinness World Record For Longest Hot Air Balloon Glow Show

Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website
Balloonists from 19 countries completed the record breaking attempt. AAAWSAT AR Website

Saudi Arabia's Al-Ula Province won the Guinness World Records (GWR) title for Longest hot air balloon glow show with 100 balloons having spread across 3km over the the desert.

Balloonists from 19 countries around the world completed the record breaking attempt as part of the ongoing Winter at Tantora festival in north west Saudi Arabia.

Glow shows are a regular attraction at Al-Ula ongoing Winter at Tantora arts, music and culture festival. An official adjudicator from GWR attended the event which saw the 100 balloons stationed 30 meters apart, to verify the official attempt as the hot air ballooning festival at Winter at Tantora came to an end.

For his part, Amr Al Madani, CEO of the Royal Commission for Al-Ula, and president of SAHAB, the Saudi Arabian Balloon Federation, said: “We are enormously proud to have been recognised by GWR for this achievement."

“This was a tremendously complex task in planning and coordination to ensure that it was achieved with maximum impact and it was truly a night to remember and demonstrates once again the extraordinary opportunities that Al-Ula has to offer in every sphere as a destination,” he added.

The balloonists who took part in the event were all certified experts who hold commercial pilot’s licences.

They offered festival attendees the opportunity to glide over and through Al-Ula's spectacular landscape and some of its 7,000 years of archaeological remains.

Winter at Tantora runs until March 7, and features a range of top-class entertainment, cultural, arts and sporting events, including concerts at the mirrored Maraya concert hall and the Fursan horse endurance race on Feb. 1.



Fallen Tree Disrupts High Speed Trains in Eastern France

File: A view shows trees, which burned during last summer's wildfires, cut down and piled - Reuters
File: A view shows trees, which burned during last summer's wildfires, cut down and piled - Reuters
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Fallen Tree Disrupts High Speed Trains in Eastern France

File: A view shows trees, which burned during last summer's wildfires, cut down and piled - Reuters
File: A view shows trees, which burned during last summer's wildfires, cut down and piled - Reuters

Traffic on high-speed trains had to be halted on two lines from Paris to eastern France on Wednesday after a train hit a tree fallen on tracks during a thunderstorm, French SNCF railways operator said on X, Reuters reported.

Traffic was due to be disrupted until at least 1200 GMT between Paris and Lyon and Paris and Dijon after being halted around 0530 GMT, SNCF said.

The incident, which was expected to impact some 80,000 travellers, comes after vandals sabotaged signal stations and cables at key points in the high-speed train network on July 26, causing travel chaos hours before the Paris Olympic games.