Balloon Glow. The first time I heard that title was when it was emailed to me by my resident advisor, and even then, the explanation had been sparse. It read:

“Come join me and your WUSAs on Friday, Sept. 14. More info to come”

Despite its vagueness, I thought to myself, “Well, color me intrigued, what might this be?” Like any true detective, I turned to my lord and savior, Google, to satiate some of my curiosity. According to the website, it’s “the oldest and most well-attended free hot-air balloon event in the world”.

Isabella Neubauer | Student Life

Now, I went to a hot air balloon festival once in Ohio. I won’t lie and say that it made my top ten list of “Most Life-Changing Moments”. If my memory serves me correctly, it was a lot of standing around in a field. There weren’t that many people there and the ones that were seemed more interested in the beer stands sprinkled around. So, perhaps it was this anticlimactic image that made me a bit biased against the whole event. I mean, how different would it be?

If irony were a person, they’d be pointing their finger right in my face and saying, “You really thought.”

Following what started as a leisurely stroll to the event (until I got my finger stuck in the cap of my water bottle like the intellectual I am), the scene immediately shattered whatever preconceived idea I had in my head. For starters, I’m pretty sure I saw more people here than in my entire town. It’d make for a killer game of “Where’s Waldo.” I could also hear lively music blaring from a nearby stage across the way.

Isabella Neubauer | Student Life

My floor and I found ourselves right by the balloons, of which there were dozens. Those massive and colorful things were quite captivating up close. However, as I was admiring all of those gas-filled nylon giants, something happened that popped the bubble of my stupor.

All of a sudden a loud horn screeched and (as if the 90-degree weather wasn’t enough) I get got a face full of hot air and bright lights.

Simultaneously, all of the racers pulled their levers and ignited their balloon’s flame, casting a glow on the surrounding area. Despite the sweat that now poured down my face, it was an absolutely beautiful sight, not to mention it made for some professional-level photos. The rest of my time spent there involved simply conversing with some friends and observing the scene around me.

It wasn’t all perfect, but that’s more based off of my personality. Going back into the humongous crowd, I eventually became overwhelmed by it. I didn’t move from my spot in fear of getting swept away (which isn’t hard when you’re 5’2”), never to be seen again. The lines for anything were too long to even attempt with my attention span. And again: It was hot. So a small group of us trekked back to the dorms at around eight, just barely catching the circulator as it passed by.

Isabella Neubauer | Student Life

Despite leaving early, it was a nice way to spend my evening and I’m glad I went. When I asked one of my WUSAs, Ahmed Hanafy, to summarize his experience, he said, “Balloon Glow overall was a really awesome experience. Walking to Forest Park with my WUSA floor and learning more about them and their experiences was really fun and interesting. Also, seeing families from St. Louis reminded me of the real world outside of college and reminded me about our place in the community.”

I’m not going to tell anyone that they have to go spend five hours at this festival to really get the experience. But I do think it’s a great event for Washington University students to get off campus for a bit and enjoy the community outside of the bubble.