We're all guilty of climate hypocrisy from time to time, though Rees' handling of the scrutiny he received after his Canada trip has been widely condemned.
However the Balloon Fiesta is an independently organised event which takes place in North Somerset. Rees has made it fairly clear that it's
not something he considers important. Bristol's politics has very little to do with it.
The Fiesta organisers take a lot of stick every time the event takes place, usually because they've failed to arrange the right kind of weather. It's a shoestring operation, several orders of magnitude smaller that the Commonwealth games, so it really isn't fair to try to compare it.
It may be in North Somerset, but isn't the estate owned by Bristol City Council?
I do indeed recall the early days, when Cameron Balloons was based in Cotham, round the corner from the grubby bedsit I inhabited in 1977-78. Curious as to what was going on in this old church or school, I stuck my head around the door, and was given an early guided tour of a single hall, a couple of sewing machines and a lot of fabric. The company followed me when I relocated to Bedminster. At the first fiesta in 1979, it was easy to chat to the balloonists, as there weren't that many. It did rather grow out of control for a while, with the infrastructure adapting just a little bit too far behind the pace, and I haven't been there since about 1995. It was always just as spectacular from the back garden, and the food was cheaper.
I was in Bristol on Sunday, and was surprised by the lightness of the traffic. I wonder if attendance was down given that the hot weather forced cancellation of the evening ascents, and the lack of buses was compounded by a lack of railway traffic on Saturday. Mayor Marvin's attitude to the event is poor - it is historic and the best known thing about Bristol in some parts of the world.
and please don't bring your family pet,the dog. I have heard there will be plenty of H2O points around the sight
I would be more worried about K9P.
