“Celebrating Maine Farms” is the theme of the 18th annual Great Falls Balloon Festival this year, and as usual, all of the hot air balloons at the festival are breathtaking when inflated. Each year the festival committee invites several special shape balloons to join the more traditional oval envelopes. This year, look for the Old McDonald’s Farm balloon and a jack-in-the-box shaped balloon called JACK!

Michael Caccavale is the owner of the Old McDonald’s Farm balloon. The balloon was manufactured in 2004; it took 880 hours to produce the balloon over five months. Its first flight was on June 3, 2004. The balloon envelope when inflated stands 61 feet high, 55 feet wide, and 55 feet in length. The weight of the envelope is 900 lbs. It has a classic basket and uses one 15-gallon and two 18-gallon tanks of fuel.

JACK!, a hot air balloon shaped like a jack-in-the-box and manufactured in 2002, is owned by pilot Colin Graham and based in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. The balloon is 12 stories tall, 600 pounds in weight, and is 110,000 cubic feet and 120 feet tall. JACK! flies over an Aerostar Classic “2” basket with two 18-gallon tanks and one 20-gallon tank.

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