Balloon Fiesta Park’s
SILVER ANNIVERSARY BY DICK BROWN, AIBF HERITAGE COMMITTEE
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his year’s Balloon Fiesta theme is “Time Flies!” – that’s certainly true for Balloon Fiesta Park. This year marks the 25th anniversary of holding our ballooning extravaganza on this grassy field.” As a multi-use, year-round city park, it serves as a driving range for golfers and a venue for many other sports, except for 60 days each fall when it is leased by Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, Inc. The park spans about 365 acres including the 78-acre launch field, equivalent to about 60 football fields. It is not only home to the annual Balloon Fiesta but to the stunning Anderson Abruzzo International Balloon Museum and the 12,000 square foot Sid Cutter Pilots’ Pavilion. The ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Pavilion took place on September 22, 2015, just in
time for that year’s Balloon Fiesta. That wasn’t the only attraction on that September day. The larger-than-life statue of Sid Cutter was officially unveiled. Months earlier, the one-ton bronze balloon basket landed at the Pavilion. This 11-foot-high work of art – a signature piece created by native New Mexican and renowned sculptor Reynaldo Rivera – would have had Sid grinning with pride. Attending the emotional unveiling were Jewel Cutter, Sid’s wife of 31 years, AIBF Executive Director Paul Smith, and Mayor Richard Berry who explained that the taxpayerfunded Pavilion replaced the giant rental tent of Fiestaspast, known to pilots as “The Landing”. The Mayor said the City wanted to honor Sid by putting his name on the building. No doubt Sid would have viewed the building,
with its big bay doors, as an airplane hangar. Its undulating roofline seems to follow the path of a balloon in flight. Many visitors may wonder just who is this man, Sid Cutter. He was born Sidney Dillon Cutter in Albuquerque on May 9, 1934. He is the younger son of civil aviation pioneers William P. Cutter and Virginia Dillon Cutter, who founded Cutter Flying Service in 1928 to serve the flourishing aviation community. Sid’s middle name descends from his grandfather, Richard C. Dillon, Governor of New Mexico (1927-1931). The company trained naval aviators and military glider pilots at the West Mesa Airport, designated a Naval Air Training School during the Second World War. In 1947, as Americans returned to peacetime life, the company relocated to the Albuquerque Sunport where it continues to operate today.
At the southeast corner of the launch field stands the Pilots’ Pavilion. Photo by David Dickinson, 2017.
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Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta® 2021 Official Program
