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Albuquerque Int’l Balloon Fiesta Brings Colorful Displays to New Mexico Sky

Nearly 500 balloons begin to take off during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 in Albuquerque, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)
Nearly 500 balloons begin to take off during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 in Albuquerque, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)
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Albuquerque Int’l Balloon Fiesta Brings Colorful Displays to New Mexico Sky

Nearly 500 balloons begin to take off during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 in Albuquerque, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)
Nearly 500 balloons begin to take off during the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023 in Albuquerque, N.M. (AP Photo/Roberto E. Rosales)

The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta has brought colorful displays to the New Mexico sky in an international event that attracts hundreds of thousands of spectators every year.
The event started Saturday with a drone light show before sunrise followed by a mass ascension of hot air balloons. Over nine days, local residents and visitors will be treated to a cavalcade of colorful and special-shaped balloons.
The annual gathering has become a major economic driver for the state’s biggest city. The Rio Grande and nearby mountains provide spectacular backdrops to the fiesta that began with a few pilots launching 13 balloons from an open lot near a shopping center on what was the edge of Albuquerque in 1972, The Associated Press reported.
The fiesta has morphed into one of the most photographed events in the world, now based at Balloon Fiesta Park. Balloon designs have featured cartoon animals, Star Wars characters and even the polar bear found on Klondike bars.
“But they’re still all about the basics,” said fiesta director Sam Parks, who flies a globe-style balloon modeled after one flown by the fiesta’s late founder Sid Cutter. “You add heat to a big bag of air and you go up.”
Nearly 830,000 people from around the world attended last year’s event. Scheduled nighttime events include fireworks and balloon glows, in which hot air balloons are inflated and lit up from the ground.
One of the biggest events in aviation, the Gordon Bennett competition, also launched Saturday night. Pilots navigate hydrogen-filled balloons high in the air and the ones who fly the farthest win.
The balloons are different than those featured throughout the Albuquerque fiesta that stay local.
Some 550 balloon pilots are registered to fly during the fiesta, seeking to take advantage of a phenomenon known as the “Albuquerque box,” when the wind blows in opposite directions at different elevations, allowing skillful pilots to bring a balloon back to a spot near the point of takeoff.
Visitors to the event also can pay to go aloft for views of the Sandia Mountains to the west and New Mexico's capital, Santa Fe, farther north.

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Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivor, Who Devoted His Life for Peace, Dies at 93

Shigemi Fukahori is interviewed at the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on July 29, 2020. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
Shigemi Fukahori is interviewed at the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on July 29, 2020. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
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Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivor, Who Devoted His Life for Peace, Dies at 93

Shigemi Fukahori is interviewed at the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on July 29, 2020. (Kyodo News via AP, File)
Shigemi Fukahori is interviewed at the Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki, southern Japan, on July 29, 2020. (Kyodo News via AP, File)

Shigemi Fukahori, a survivor of the 1945 Nagasaki atomic bombing, who devoted his life to advocating for peace has died. He was 93.

Fukahori died at a hospital in Nagasaki, southwestern Japan, on Jan. 3, the Urakami Catholic Church, where he prayed almost daily until last year, said on Sunday. Local media reported he died of old age.

The church, located about 500 meters from ground zero and near the Nagasaki Peace Park, is widely seen as a symbol of hope and peace, as its bell tower and some statues and survived the nuclear bombing.

Fukahori was only 14 when the US dropped the bomb on Nagasaki on Aug. 9, 1945, killing tens of thousands of people, including his family. That came three days after the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, which killed 140,000 people. Japan surrendered days later, ending World War II and the country's nearly half-century of aggression across Asia.

Fukahori, who worked at a shipyard about 3 kilometers (2 miles) from where the bomb dropped, couldn’t talk about what happened for years, not only because of the painful memories but also how powerless he felt then.

About 15 years ago, he became more outspoken after encountering, during a visit to Spain, a man who experienced the bombing of Guernica in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War when he was also 14 years old. The shared experience helped Fukahori open up.

“On the day the bomb dropped, I heard a voice asking for help. When I walked over and held out my hand, the person’s skin melted. I still remember how that felt,” Fukahori told Japan’s national broadcaster NHK in 2019.

He often addressed students, hoping they take on what he called “the baton of peace,” in reference to his advocacy.

When Pope Francis visited Nagasaki in 2019, Fukahori was the one who handed him a wreath of white flowers. The following year, Fukahori represented the bomb victims at a ceremony, making his “pledge for peace,” saying: “I am determined to send our message to make Nagasaki the final place where an atomic bomb is ever dropped.”

A wake is scheduled for Sunday, and funeral services on Monday at Urakami Church, where his daughter will represent the family.