What's Up Wednesday July 26, 2023 #78

This week on What's Up Wednesday, a really cool special pin, and the release of the 2024 Official Calendar.

Let's start with the calendar. These are always hot items and starting today they are now available for puchase. It's a spiral-bound wall calendar featuring full color pictures for each month of the year. There's big boxes for you to record your appointments and other reminders and each month has a little blurb about Balloon Fiesta. Each month also contains holidays and special days, including some ballooning history. But the most exciting part of the calendar is the embedded videos. And this year, it's easier than ever to access the videos. Just point your mobile device at the QR code found on each full page picture and you'll see the video come alive with video and music that matches that picture. No more apps to download, just use the camera on your smart device. There's nearly 40 minutes of video in this year's calendar and if that's not enough, use the QR code on the back cover to view the more than 200 hours of archived Balloon Fiesta Live! video.

You're going to want to pick up calendars for all your friends, family and crew members. To make that a little easier, we're selling a case of 25 calendars for the price of 20 calendars. Make sure you select the case lot when ordering to get the discount. 

Speaking of dates, did you know that on October 14 of this year, the second Saturday of Balloon Fiesta, Albuquerque is directly in the path of the annular eclipse? The entire solar event starts at 9:13 in the morning, entering annularity at 10:34, peaking at 10:35, exiting annularity at 10:39 and is totally over at 12:09.

An annular solar eclipse happens when the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth while it is at its farthest point from Earth. Because the Moon is farther away from Earth, it appears smaller than the Sun and does not completely cover the star. This creates a “ring of fire” effect in the sky. 

While special programming on the field for that time period is still being finalized, Balloon Fiesta Stuff is ready with a pin to mark the special occasion. 

It features the Fiesta balloon creating its own eclipse, actually sliding across the pin in front of the sun. It's a really cool pin and certainly one you'll want to remember this special event.  

Finally, our Christmas in July sale finishes up in just 6 days. Get a free gift with any order placed thru the end of July as well as get some great deals on last year's merchandise.

Thanks for your support of Balloon Fiesta and Balloon Fiesta Stuff.