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Lorraine Mondial International hot air balloon festival 2013

The Lorraine Mondial International balloon festival, one of the greatest hot air and gas balloon events, took place in the northeastern French region between July 26^th and August 4^th. Balloon enthusiasts from all over the world met in Lorraine among which The meeco Group Balloon team led by the Chief Technical Officer, Thomas Beindorf, was also present. The first edition of the festival took place in 1989 and has since then been annually repeated given its great success, lasting 10 days and with an increasing national and international popularity.

At this year’s edition, two major world records were broken; on July 31^st, 408 balloons took off simultaneously within an hour time. The balloons ascended from the former NATO air base of Chambley and broke the previous record of 343 balloons, which was set at the same festival in 2011. The second record was achieved on August 1^st and its aim was to line up 391 balloons on the runway and to lift them up together.

The festival aims not only at encouraging and strengthening the friendship between the aeronauts of all nations, but also stimulating the development of aerial sports and promoting the Lorraine region. The meeco team leader and pilot Thomas Beindorf, agrees with the latter: ‘The event allowed us to share our experience in the renewable energy sector with other participants and how to do things right in this specific business sector around the world. Photovoltaics in particular became a commodity in Europe, but around the globe there is still a long way to go. The meeco Group guides and advises its clients in their quest to adopt renewable energy as their source of energy.’

Photo credits: Thomas Beindorf, Svenja de Andrade Costas Magalhães

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