Here floats a time capsule of the year gone by, a traumatic period for so many. This spectacular floating pop of colour will symbolise our road to recovery and farewell to what has been a challenging 2020 for many in Victoria.
We are extremely excited to reveal our ‘Love Letter to Melbourne’ Balloon!
In successfully flying this hot air balloon over the city, we are celebrating hundreds of hours of work that has gone into conceptualising, campaigning, designing, and building this incredibly unique project.
Here are some facts about it:
The Balloon
The balloon has been built by Kavanagh Balloons. This Sydney based family business is Australia’s only balloon manufacturer.
- 25.5m tall and 16.4m in diameter
- Total surface area: 930 sq/m – nearly 400 individually cut panels of fabric
- Completely custom printed – 14 litres of ink
- Over 2.4km of sewing thread used.
- Balloon weight: 138kg
The Design
From an early stage, we wanted the design to capture Melbourne’s diverse street-art culture. Raine Chen is our local inhouse designer and translator. She is a passionate balloonist and Melbournian. Taking inspiration from the tapestry of colours and shapes on Hosier Lane, she designed this incredible balloon. Then with the rest of the team at Global Ballooning Australia, she carefully integrated the hundreds of names and messages supplied by hundreds of local and international contributors.
Collaboration
This passion project was first conceptualised by Kiff Saunders in August 2020, amidst the grueling Melbourne lockdown, to inspire our community. Without an immense amount of support from our local community ‘Love Letter to Melbourne’ would have stayed on the drawing board.
Kiff and Global Ballooning Australia would like to thank over 400 individual contributors to:
Yarra Ranges Marketing & Tourism
Bridge Builders Youth Organisation
We cannot wait to showcase our balloon with you and the wonderful opportunity to fly many passengers over the coming years!
