Have visited it at it's new venue this year (2009) at Billing Aquadrome...what a load of rubbish. I was never able to get to it when it was at the Northampton race track but was always told how great a spectacle it was...so was really excited about the spectacle I was going to see and thought £10 for parking was reasonable as there was no entrance fee. If you read this before you go....don't waste your time, money or petrol to go there as all it is is a glorified market with loads of tack being sold and loads of kids slides....in actual fact it should be renamed the 'Northampton Kids Slide Festival'!

When I lived in the town of Northampton I lived a couple of streets away from the racecourse where the balloon festival was held, a few days before it started the balloonists would test the balloons over the skys of Northampton and all the family would sit outside the front door watching the balloons going overhead it was spectacular, and you felt as if the balloons were really close to you. When the balloon festival started my brothers and me would walk down to the racecourse early in the morning and watch the balloonists firering the balloons testing them and al the balloonists would all be in the arena firering up, it was great. They have a radio station, ...  Read the complete review

A spectacular weekend to have out. at the racecourse in northampton the balloon festival is an annual event that is a good weekend of events, stalls and fair, for the young and old. I have only recently been going every year as i live 3 hours away but it such a fab place to take the kids. All he stalls filled with everything you can think off. Parking is on site a little expensive but aint it like that wherever you go. The balloon are such a wonderful serene sight setting off into the sky. The night entertainment i not been to but i heard it is wonderful they really do put there all into this yearly ...  Read the complete review

Every August Northampton hosts a ‘Balloon Festival’ on Racecourse Park; my sister lives practically opposite the park and has said how good previous Festivals have been, so today we drove down to see what all the fuss is about. It was worth the sixty mile (or so) journey. The Balloon Festival is a weekend in dedication of hot air balloons and ran from Friday 18th – Sunday 20th August this year, and on corresponding weekends each year from around 10am until late. We arrived at 11am and I’ve literally just sat down to write this review as I walked back into my house in Birmingham at 2am. We’ve had an absolute blast. The huge park is split into ...  Read the complete review

I have lived in and around Northampton all of my life (23 years of it so far) and I have been to the ballon festival 3 times in the last 5 years. I regret that i had not started going to it sooner. The ballon festival weekend is a wonderful day out for all of the family, the atmosphere that surrounds the bullons and the people flying them is very exhilarating and make you wish that you were going up in the next ballon that is about to take off. There are literally hundreds of ballons to go round and look at varying from the more traditional ballons to some very large, weird but most wonderfully shaped ballons you will ever see, from the Budweiser bottle ...  Read the complete review