Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival

The Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival has been an enduring staple of the Inland Empire, highlighting all the beautiful things the Temecula Valley has to offer for nearly 40 years.

The first Balloon & Wine Festival was launched in the spring of 1984 and was a monumental success for a town of only 9,000 residents and six wineries. That year, a little over 4,000 people were in attendance as the festival launched 35 balloons from Rancho California Plaza. While the hot air balloons flew over the serene pastures surrounding the area, guests attended quaint wine tastings in what is now the parking lot of Tower Plaza, and a wonderful community tradition was born.

Over the years the festival grew in popularity and size. Music was added and the event was moved to the Ronald Reagan Sports Park to accommodate the steady increase in attendance. By 1989, just five short years after its inception, the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival relocated once more to Lake Skinner, where it is still held today.

The festival offers fun for everyone with the finest sights, tastes and sounds of the Temecula Valley set against the pictureperfect backdrop that is the heart of the Southern California Wine Country.

The annual event has expanded greatly on its namesake features, with up to 40 hot air balloons taking flight at sunrise to compliment the gorgeous Temecula landscape, along with at least 18 wineries from the surrounding areas showcasing a vast selection of varietals and the mastery of the valley’s best winemakers. That is only the beginning of what the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival has to offer crowds that now average around 30,000 throughout the three-day weekend event.

While Temecula Valley is known for its wineries, the area is quickly becoming the destination for craft breweries as well. These local brew masters have perfected their craft without losing their drive for innovation and with these skills have created a popular niche within the festival for beer drinkers. The spacious new craft beer garden not only coexists with, but compliments the established winery row, helping to round out the festival experience. Along with the spotlight on local wineries and breweries, there is an abundance of amazing community businesses to highlight. The Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine festival

is consistently expanding to include over 100 retail vendors and local businesses, a sprawling food court with a diverse collection of snacks, treats and meals and two different stages with top local and world-renowned musical artists. The bands and musicians that have stepped onto the stages within the festival grounds have continued to be a popular draw for guests each year. The event has hosted many fan favorite artists over the years on their Main Stage, such as Blake Shelton, Train, 3 Doors Down and most recently Bret Michaels, to name just a few. The sprawling festival grounds can accommodate more than just the Main Stage venue, offering the smaller scale Wine Stage for ambient music and intimate showcases of immensely talented local artists as well. The Wine Stage, perfectly placed among the multitude of winery and brewery tents, provides the perfect location for a variety of hot air balloon events.

Hot air balloons are an essential part of this unique festival, lifting both spirits and actual spectators every year. Guests can choose not only to watch the balloons lift with the morning sun, but also to be a part of the skyline along with them, with the option to choose between a 45-minute balloon flight over wine country. A five to eight-minute tethered ride that resides within the festival grounds is also available. Not many know that hot air balloon flights can be affected by the smallest change in weather, even a little too much morning haze can affect their ability to launch, which can make those launch locations and times slightly spontaneous but doesn’t detract from the magic of their flight. So, weather permitting, flights are offered Saturdays and Sundays at dawn for the early risers, balloon enthusiasts, and those looking to enjoy a once in a lifetime experience. Luckily however, for those that don’t quite make it up by sunrise, there’s more than one way to enjoy the wonderous sight of rising hot air balloons with the option of the festivals evening balloon shows on Friday and Saturday nights. These Balloon “Glows” provide a close-up view of the hot air balloons and a spectacular light show set against the inky black of the night sky. During the glow, up to eight balloons tether to the ground in front of the wine stage, inflate their canopies and then ignite their burners in sync with one another. The colorfully illuminated canopies of the balloons all nestled together provide an unforgettable illuminated experience for the crowds gathered in the warm summer night air of the festival. These shows can last 15-30 minutes depending on the balloons taking part and offer festival goers an up close and personal interaction with the hot air balloons while remaining firmly planted on the ground.

Throughout the years this event has been able to grow and thrive with encouragement from the tight knit community that surrounds it and enthusiastically supports its success. With each festival comes the opportunity to expand on the guest experience and offer a foundation for unforgettable memories. This upcoming year will be no exception as festival organizers have set out to put on the most fun filled festival yet to celebrate the Temecula Balloon & Wine Festival’s 40th anniversary.

This monumental year for the festival has its team behind the scenes looking to expand and book exciting new entertainment, bring back the children’s fair, unveil new hot air balloon experiences, and increase the inclusion of community cultural groups among many other possibilities. Planning for the 2023 Festival is officially in full swing and everyone is excited to see what this milestone year holds for the Temecula Valley Balloon & Wine Festival.