QuickChek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning

Yay!/Meh…
So, the «Yay!» is for the balloons and the «Meh…» is for the messed up parking situation.
The balloons are gorgeous and it’s a lot of fun, walking around and eating carnival food. This year, one balloon took off and then the rest were briefly grounded due to windy conditions. However, just a few minutes later, balloons were floating up into the air. Crowd favorites included the celestial balloon, Yoda, and Darth Vader. There was a dino egg too, which was cute, and a seahorse.
There was a mass exodus shortly before all of the balloons had launched. I guess everyone had the same thought that they could sneak out of the parking lot while the majority of people were still hanging out. Unfortunately, too many of us had this idea and the parking lot was a mess. There was zero organization and no staff to direct the cars and there were a-​holes driving in and out of any blank spaces trying to squeeze their way (unfairly) into the queue. It took almost 2 hours for us to get out which was so stupidly insane that it makes me never want to go to another one of these festivals ever again!

Finally got the chance to witnessed balloon mass ascension. You should diligently check the weather if it is worth coming to the festival as if winds picked up more than 10 mph, there will be no chance of letting their balloon riders and drivers to fly. A little disppointed as their site advertising that this event is the biggest balloon festival in North America. Correct me if I am wrong by those who witnessed this year’s festival, I think the ballons were not even close to 70 counts. What I liked most though was the baloon glowing part, it was mesmerizing to see this ballons glow at night and the chosen time and location was inevitable as it was next to the performing artist of the night.
By the way, they do the mass inflation and ascension twice, one in the morning and one in the evening at around oor about 6:30.
There are other activities you could do, see, join and witness before this main event or after if you chose to come in the morning. If you will be interested for next year’s event, just check their website for what they offer.
Got our admisssion tickets through Groupon and it was half priced. The parking fee is a killer– $ 10. If you want to make a day worth, come early and put ample time to do other things while waiting for the main event. Surely worth it. Another thing that you need to take note is when it is time to leave. Lots of traffic. Either you leave earlier before the mass crowd or stay

Attended for the very 1^st time and it was a fantastic experience! My girlfriend and I bought a Groupon deal and got in for ½ price, which if available, I would recommend any festival-​goers to purchase. Like most large festivals, there was an abundance of people walking around and, at times, limited space to walk, however it wasn’t like a stampede. There were plenty of vendors selling food, gifts and providing giveaways. The obvious highlight of the day was the mass balloon inflation and ascension and, although we waited many hours for it, was well worth the wait! Since it was our first time attending, we definitely learned many lessons so here they are:
Tips for newcomers:
— On sunny days, apply lots of sunblock. Luckily for us, free sunblock was provided at one of the booths.
— Bring foldable beach chairs/​blankets and umbrellas to sit on the lawn to view the balloons. They can be left in your car too initially and you can get your hand stamped for re-​entry so that they can be retrieved.
— Arrive about 3 hours prior to the inflation as it takes about 1 – 2 hours to circle around the festival, stop at vendors and eat. Then the rest of the time can be spent relaxing on the lawn at an ideal spot to view the balloons.
— You can purchase food and drinks at many vendors, but the cheapest area to buy food and beverages is the Quickchek tent. Fountain drinks were just $ 2! compared to much higher prices outside of it.
— There were many free sample giveaways, specifically beverage and snack samples. To be honest, one can get away with not purchasing a beverage all day and just keep sampling different beverages to stay hydrated. That’s how many different beverage samples there were!
— For bathroom breaks, there were designated porta potty areas, but be prepared to hold your breathe when in them. They get very stuffy on hot days too. Hand sanitizer was provided outside of the potties.
— If it is too windy, the balloons will not be inflated and will not ascend. On the day we attended, the inflation was delayed about 40 minutes and a handful of balloons did not ascend. It’s probably better to go to the AM show as there’s less people and less wind usually, but it’s harder to wake up for that.
— Remember what row you parked at! The parking area is HUGE and it’s easy to lose track of where you parked. There is a row indicator at the beginning of each parking row.
— Be prepared to wait up to 1 – 1.5 hours to leave the parking lot at night. It was very slow going, but we were fortunate enough to cut through the parking area by driving straight through empty spaces and make it to the exit in 30 minutes, while others waited much longer. If you have a chance to cut through, I’d recommend it to exit quicker, but safely.

It seems like each year, this event gets more and more crowded.
What should take me 45 – 50 minutes to get to, took me FOUR frickin’ hours! If my daughter wasn’t looking forward to this so much, I would’ve turned around LONG before that.
Every line for every food and beer vendor was ridiculous… the balloons didn’t take off on time, and prices are obviously outrageous.
My family and I used to love this event, but now that everyone in North America appears to show up here at the same time, it’s lost its charm for us.
Probably won’t be back next year.

My biggest complaint is that we bought the tickets at the door today and there was no indication that the balloons would not be flying… Heres full story about this terrible experience…
After researching this festival and the other hot air balloon festival nearby, we picked this one and had high hopes. After paying $ 35 per person and another $ 10 to park, we spent hours in the heat with very little available shade and only expensive options to cool down ($ 2.50 for a bottle of water?!). After baking in the sun for hours, THERE WERE NO HOT AIR BALLOONS! I understand that it is weather permitting but the winds were literally 4 miles per hour and they wouldn’t fly. There was no rain. There was no thunder. The least they could do is fly a couple balloons for 15 minutes so we would feel like we paid for something! This was a huge waste of time and money and a giant disappointment.