Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning

The Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning has been held annually at the Solberg Airport in Readington Township, New Jersey since 1983. Its lead sponsor is Quick Chek Food Stores. In 2012, the festival hosted around 125 special shape and sport hot air balloons. It also had music concerts, crafters and vendors, food, and fireworks, which attracted more than 175,000 people. It had more than fifty corporate partners.

Festival Information and History

Balloons at the 2009 festival

In 1983, Bill Lewis working with people from USA Today, brought approximately ten hot air balloons to the Union 76 Truck Stop on Interstate 78 in New Jersey for the inaugural event. After two years they moved the festival to its current site at Solberg Airport where it grew to 40-50 balloons and 30,000-40,000 attendees.

In 1993, Howard Freeman and John Korff acquired the New Jersey Festival of Ballooning and signed a long term deal with Solberg Airport. That same year they secured a long term sponsorship agreement with Quick Chek Food Stores. In time, the festival has become the largest event in New Jersey and the largest summertime balloon festival in North America.

Korff and Freeman, whose only previous experience with balloons was watching the movie "The Wizard of Oz," decided to attend the Thunderbird Balloon Classic in Arizona to see what the "hot air" was all about. Both entrepreneurs were immediately impressed by the amount of traffic and the number of people who appeared "spellbound" by the sight of dozens of hot air balloons in the sky.

In that time, Freeman and Korff have grown the festival not only into the largest event in New Jersey, but into the largest summertime balloon festival in North America. Now, backed by more than fifty corporate partners, including title sponsor Quick Chek Food Stores, the festival has grown in stature both nationally and internationally. Recently the festival was designated for the fifth time as one of the top one hundred events in North America by the American Bus Association and also was the recipient of the Governor's award for the Best Special Event in New Jersey.

In 2000, to differentiate the festival from other balloon festivals, major concerts were added to the festival. The first concert presented the legendary band, The Beach Boys. Each subsequent festival included three major concerts. Headliners have included The Doobie Brothers, Hall & Oates, Styx, Foreigner, America, Jonas Brothers and KC & the Sunshine Band.

This year's 31st Annual Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning will attract more than 175,000 people from all over the United States. In fact, the festival is only 35 miles from New York City, Philadelphia and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; 30 miles from Newark and 25 miles from Trenton.

While the Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning is designed to offer fun for people of all ages, Freeman and Korff have also dedicated their efforts, through the festival, to helping the community. A portion of all proceeds from the festival are donated to the Children's Miracle Network, which funds three pediatric hospitals in New Jersey. Last year, more than $175,000 was raised by the festival for local charities bringing the total contribution for the 19 years of Freeman and Korff's management to over 2 million dollars returned to local and regional non-profits.

All told, The Festival Group has now produced forty-seven hot air balloon and music festivals, including festivals in Columbus, Ohio; South Weymouth, Massachusetts; Brookhaven, New York; Burlington, Vermont; Syracuse, New York; Jersey City, New Jersey; Springfield, Massachusetts and Inner Mongolia, China.

Virgin ritual

Since 2004, the festival has hired a virgin to perform a ritual to ensure good weather for the festival. It has worked for three straight years. Freeman, one of the organizers, claims the ritual comes from Singapore. It involves having a virgin drive a golf cart to each of the four corners of the festival site. At each corner she picks up blades of grass, mumbles random words, penetrates whole onions and peppers with knives, then jams the knives with the produce into the ground.^[1]

The 2007 virgin, Victoria Brumfield (born 1979), said it is a mixture of "fun and embarrassment" and that "if it does rain, my virtue is not to blame. I'm waiting until I'm married and no one has asked yet." She is a devout Mormon.^[1][2][3]

Charity

A portion of all proceeds from the festival are donated to the Children's Miracle Network, which funds three pediatric hospitals in New Jersey. In 2006, more than $150,000 was raised by the festival for local charities bringing the total contribution for the 13 years of Freeman and Korff's management to over $1.25 million.

Honors

The QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning is the largest summertime hot air balloon and music festival in North America and is the premiere family entertainment attraction in New Jersey.

See also

• Hot air balloon festivals

References

External links

• Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning

Coordinates: 40°34′57″N 74°43′55″W / 40.5825°N 74.7319°W / 40.5825; -74.7319