Flickr photo by Traj. (2021)
Balloons at the Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival. The 48th annual event occurs this September.
The 48th annual Adirondack Hot Air Balloon festival is slated for September 23 to 26, and Tuesday evening July 12, the Queensbury Town Board approved a $15,000 disbursement of occupancy tax funds to the nonprofit corporation that runs the festival. Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival Inc. has already gotten another $40,000 from the county through its share of the occupancy tax funds.
The group expects up to 150,000 people to attend the event, according to the request submitted to the town.
This year, due to continuing COVID-19 restrictions, there will be no vendors at the festival, so this money is especially important to the group, said Queensbury Town Supervisor, John Strough.
The town and county funds “are the only two sources of funding to initiate this,” Strough said at the board meeting Tuesday evening.
Occupancy taxes are collected from hotels, motels and family homes that are rented for short-term periods.
Use of the funds is expected to promote the area, promote an event, and bring people to the area to stay in hotels and to eat at local restaurants.
Strough reminded the town board that the balloon festival is put on by volunteers, and there are no paid staff. He added that the fancy balloons that draw children—balloons in the shapes of animated characters and animals—do not come of their own accord.
“You have to pay them to come,“ Strough said.
The occupancy tax distribution comes at a time that Warren County is considering changing how it distributes the money. According to a story last week in the Post-Star, the county wants more details and data from groups that apply. These potential changes did not affect the balloon festival application this funding cycle, Warren County spokesperson Don Lehman wrote in an email.
The Adirondack Hot Air Balloon Festival Inc., a nonprofit corporation, wrote in the application to the town that they did not have data about the number of people who rent rooms or stay in local hotels during the festival.
The town board approved the funds unanimously. Last September's festival was cancelled due to the COVID pandemic.