LAKE HAVASU CITY — While there’s good reason Lake Havasu City has its so-called event season mostly during the winter months that doesn’t always translate into ideal weather conditions for most of those events. However, the weather this year has been exceptional so far.
Will hot air balloons for the Havasu Balloon Festival and Fair go up during a mass ascension or are they grounded because of wind? That’s the big question asked every year during one of the city’s largest events.
During January’s Balloonfest, four out of six mass ascension flights were able to be completed, according to Steve Ticknor, the event’s executive director. Ticknor’s company, DSM Events, either owns or is involved with many of the larger events in Havasu.
“It really needed that,” said Kristina Gallo, board chair for Go Lake Havasu, the city’s tourism bureau. To some, the event gets a stigma for the weather conditions that ground the balloons, she added.
Becky Goldberg, one of Balloonfest’s organizers, said it’s an unfair assessment for people to say the hot air balloons routinely don’t go up during the event. In the 15 years of the event, she said, balloons are able to fly 87% of the time.
The weekend after Balloonfest, the 40th Annual Winterfest Street Festival in downtown Havasu, again, had comfortable conditions with temperatures elevating into the upper 70s on both days.
“I was making friends (in other parts of the country) jealous with the beautiful weather,” Gallo said.
Both Winterfest and Balloonfest organizers say they were happy with the turnout numbers for their respective events as well.
Ticknor estimated that the Havasu Balloon Festival and Fair had more than 20,000 visitors over the four-day event. The event featured a new carnival, a bolstered lineup of bands including Havasu’s own Matt Farris, tethered balloon rides, night glows, a 5K run and an associated golf tournament (the weekend before).
Havasu’s Main Street was packed for Winterfest with 233 vendors with the visitors browsing their offerings. The number of vendors is up from 209 he previous year, said Amanda Mehaffey, director of special events for the Lake Havasu Area Chamber of Commerce. Winterfest is the chamber’s largest fundraising event.
Satisfaction with turnout and the weather continues as a familiar refrain with Rockabilly and Winter Blast events in mid-February.
“Rockabilly Reunion was a huge success this year, featuring 19 bands over three days, a car show with well over 200 cars and lots of vendors and food trucks,” Ticknor said. “Again, the weather could not have been better, and our attendance increased significantly from the year before, with nearly 9,000 attendees. The event went smoothly with no major hiccups.”
For Winter Blast, Ticknor’s organization is involved in everything but the actual fireworks that are put on by the Western Pyrotechnic Association.
“With the weather being so nice, we had a record setting crowd on Friday night (compared to years past) and a sold-out show for Saturday night (pretty typical),” Ticknor said.
Beyond the events themselves, money spent at hotels, resorts, restaurants and retail shops is pivotal during the winter months. Final tallies on that revenue isn’t known, but London Bridge Resort and The Nautical officials said they are seeing strong occupancy numbers for event season.
A final tally of funds raised from Balloonfest to be distributed to Havasu nonprofits could be more than $200,000, Ticknor said. That tally could be announced in late March.
Greg Moberly
