Balloon festival spectacle over Norfolk

Adam GrettonAround a dozen colourful balloons took to the skies at the weekend for a Norfolk airfield's inaugural balloon festival.Enthusiasts joined light aircraft pilots and parachutists at Old Buckenham Airfield for the meeting, which organisers hope to make an annual event.Adam Gretton

Around a dozen colourful balloons took to the skies at the weekend for a Norfolk airfield's inaugural balloon festival.

Enthusiasts joined light aircraft pilots and parachutists at Old Buckenham Airfield for the meeting, which organisers hope to make an annual event.

Hot air balloon owners from across the country set up camp at the former second world war US Air Force base, near Attleborough, on Friday. They began flying on Saturday evening after the winds eased to provide perfect conditions.

Nine balloonists will continue to fly from the airfield today , weather depending.

Organiser Peter Waller, from Norwich, said the members of the British Balloon and Airship Club came from as far afield as Essex, Kent, Hertfordshire, and Cumbria, to attend the first Norfolk Balloon Festival.

'Norfolk is a very good place to fly over and we are trying to make it as popular as the Blickling Hall balloon festival that was cancelled a few years ago. Old Buckenham is a lovely area and the people are very friendly here,' he said.