Moscow International Balloon Festival takes place in Moscow

Multicolored balloons – it is a symbol of celebration and funwhich brings us back to childhood, gives us the opportunity to forget about problems and just enjoy the wonderful spectacle. You can often meet young people in love walking in the park with a heart-shaped balloon. Halls are decorated with balls for weddings and anniversaries. At all children’s holidays, animators show how to make animal figures from long narrow sausage balls: cats, dogs, frogs …

As part of the World of Childhood exhibition, the 22nd Moscow International Balloon Festival is taking place, today the largest in Europe in terms of the number of participants, visitors, sponsors, and therefore, in terms of significance.

The Moscow International Balloon Festival traditionally brings together the best teams of graphic designers from different parts of Russia and the world. Festival participants compete in the art of creating various figures, bouquets and costumes from balloons, which are then exhibited inside the Expocentre pavilion. The theme of the XXII Moscow International Balloon Festival is “The Magical Power of the Art of Aerodesign”.

The festival program consists of seminars on teaching the art of aero design, exhibitions and presentations of materials and equipment, business negotiations and round tables. After all, despite the large number of offers for the sale of helium balloons on the holiday goods market, there are very few real masters. The festival is one of the most pleasant opportunities to show oneself, share experiences and learn new tricks and tricks in working with balloons.

The most important, expected and beautiful part of the festival is the open championship of Russia in professional aero design. Seven competitive nominations were determined: a large sculpture of balloons; 12 minutes; black box; balloon costume; ball fountain for delivery; secret nomination; photo contest.

Hundreds of thousands, yes, perhaps, millions of balloons filled one of the pavilions of the Expocentre on Krasnaya Presnya. The best teams of graphic designers from different parts of Russia and the world will create their own air compositions, figures, bouquets, costumes and much more. In the 12 Minutes competition, for example, in front of the jury and spectators, designers create small figurines from balloons in strict time limits – 12 minutes for each. One of the most spectacular nominations is “Big Sculpture”. Giant fairy tale and cartoon characters, created from several thousand balls of different colors and shapes, delight the eye and amaze the imagination! The pavilion becomes like a fantastic city of balls. It is interesting not only for the masters themselves, but also for the audience: this year, a record number of masters participate in the “Large Sculpture” nomination.

If for specialists the festival is primarily a business event, then for guests it is a real fairy tale. Where else can you see so much positive “flying art” in one place and learn how it’s all done.

The most anticipated event of the festival is the show of balloon dresses. Models in weightless, fantastic outfits swaying from the slightest breeze pass (or fly?) along the catwalk to the enthusiastic sighs of the audience. Balls of various colors and sizes are ingeniously “sewn” to each other so that they form something like a thin fabric, beautifully fitting the figure. The simplest costume consists of at least 200 balloons. The work is in the truest sense of the word jewelry: manually, carefully, you need to connect all these bubbles together, not one of them is damaged and the entire fragile structure does not fall apart. At the same time, such an “airy” dress exists for no more than a day. The balls from which it is made are blown away. Of course, you won’t be able to go out in such dresses, but to impress at a holiday or carnival is quite! It just takes a lot of courage…

By the way, in Japan such dresses are extremely fashionable. The cost of balloons for one dress is about $200, but buyers are willing to pay dozens of times more for it. The label of the dress reads in large letters: “Please beware of sharp objects!”

OUR REFERENCE

Balloons originate from ancient times. Since time immemorial, people have sought to decorate their holidays with bright attributes. In 1783, the physicist Charles created a silk ball soaked in a solution of rubber with turpentine. The balloon filled with hydrogen rose high up, but burst. The invention failed and was not appreciated. The primacy of the invention was given to the Montgolfier brothers, whose paper ball, filled with smoke from smoldering wool and burning straw, rose to a height of 300 m and soared in the air for 10 minutes. In 1824, Faraday himself glued together a rubber ball for his experiments with hydrogen. In 1931, explosive hydrogen was replaced with helium. And with the invention in 1931 of latex balloons, which could be of different shapes, the era of figured compositions from balloons began. Today’s balloons are made from advanced materials, come in a variety of shapes, and are filled in convenient ways. The most common are classic balloons. They are inflated with air and placed according to the intended design. Sometimes they are painted or written with various inscriptions that increase when inflated, causing the fun of others. At corporate meetings, balloons usually show off the brands of firms. There are special transparent balls with an enlarged neck. They place small objects or small multi-colored balls. Children love foil balloons in the form of fairy-tale characters or funny faces. Interesting balloons that themselves inflate and deflate due to a chemical reaction. Illuminated balls are of particular admiration. They shimmer in different colors and create a magical atmosphere. Spectacular and original balloons that play a melody when touched.

Modern materials for balloons do not use artificial dyes, so they do not cause allergies, but you need to purchase “flying joy” only from trusted manufacturers. Keep in mind that balloons released into the sky are certainly a beautiful sight, but they can be a threat to the environment. It is better to admire the balloons in the hall, and after the holiday, the blown and burst balloons should be disposed of like ordinary garbage.

It is not at all necessary to wait for the onset of the holiday to please yourself with a bouquet of colorful balloons. An ordinary walk along the boulevard with such a cute and beautiful attribute in your hands will bring joyful emotions and smiles not only to you, but also to unfamiliar passers-by. After all, looking at multi-colored balloons fluttering in the wind, you just want to smile, to feel that there is still room for romance and joy in monotonous workdays.

Mikhail Kovalyov.

Author’s photo