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As I looked at the calendar today, I realized that by the time you actually cast your eyes upon these words, it will be less than two months before we start general inflation on our annual BalloonTown USA project. So, in what is becoming a yearly tradition of its own, over the next few months I'll be covering the work both ongoing and upcoming for what is growing into a larger and larger yearly balloon event.
Last year, "BalloonTown USA: Balloonsylvania" used 18,331 confirmed balloons to create a spooky haunted hollow on Halloween weekend. In what became one of the most physically exhausting periods of my life, my small, dedicated crew and I worked for over two weeks to build the lairs of "Franklyn Stein," the "Twisted Sisters" and "Dr. Squish." Photos from last year's event are available for viewing on the website at www.balloontownusa.com.
Sand Weights: With over 100 individual floating fish, free-standing helium filled pieces and filler accessories required, plenty of sand weights are needed to hold things down.
Support Poles: As a decorator using square-packed garland to produce the walls of Balloon Lagoon, over 300 8' poles are needed to hold all those balloons up. Part of our organizational process involves prepping each pole with a tag that will later be used to denote not only which wall it belongs to, but which particular piece of the wall as well.
Base Plates: Yep, each one of these 300 odd poles needs something to hold it up. Wooden base plates were cut and built as well as painted this time around. Last year, we used simple wooden bases and covered them with black mats to clean them up. By painting them, we hope to save at least two labor hours during the installation process. That may not seem like much, but when you've only got 48 hours of installation time total versus all the time in the world beforehand, it makes sense to bust them out prior.
Stanchions: You may remember that last year we had to make homemade stanchions due to expense. They really weren't anything anyone else hadn't done before; in fact, it was Michelle Fraley from F2 Balloons in California who gave me the idea for them after seeing a photo of work she had done some years ago. But this year's event required more of them, so it was back to having a local country club save #10 cans for us. A little PVC pipe and cement and there you go.
Sketches: Without a doubt, these are the most important part of the preliminary process. Without a vision, projects like BalloonTown could never take place. Countless hours are spent designing and redesigning portions of the exhibit, and while some pieces were easy to develop, others took considerably longer.
Experimenting: Like any twister will tell you, it takes a while of playing before you can get a design to look just right. While designs may work on paper, sometimes they're not quite as practical when we start the inflation process. So, time has to be spent with some concepts and designs to make sure they'll work the way we want them to.
Jump Starting: Last year's venue would not allow us access to installation until noon on the Thursday before the event. This year, we're allowed to enter the gym of the school at 6:00 PM on the Wednesday before, but must stop for the night at 8:00 PM. Even an hour or two of advanced time means we can deliver and set up equipment and work stations in advance. We can also begin working on Thursday at 8:00 AM, another advantage.
Larger Vehicle: In 2004, we rented a 15' truck to aid with the delivery of the prepped work. Six hours and 10 trips later, all of the columns and pre-constructed work were delivered. Remember, the event venue was six minutes away from our shop.
This year, we have reserved a 24' truck. We're hoping the additional 9' of storage space will cut out at least four trips. Ironically, the new location is also six minutes from our shop, so we're hoping to trim about at least an hour of driving time alone out of the load-in process.
Base Plate "Plotting": As previously mentioned, our base plates will be prepped and painted to save time. Since the balloon walls have been already plotted on paper, we know precisely how many columns each wall will need. And since we already mentioned having our poles prepped with tags to mark which wall and spot they're placed in, we can assign each base plate with a code number. On Wednesday evening, the base plates will be assembled and placed appropriately in the room where each wall will stand, keeping in mind safe access for foot traffic as we load in.
Strategic Inflation: Our columns will be inflated at the shop in the order of the walls that are closest to the load-in doors. The difference is that they will be placed in the back of the storage area at the shop so they are the last balloons to be loaded in. This way, the load in area is kept free of obstacles until the process is over.
Immediate Placement: While we had our columns pre-marked last year, it took hours for our small crew to get each base plate assembled and in position. As a result, the columns ended up being placed in piles around the room to hasten the load-in process. What resulted, however, was a massive delay in assembly and installation.
With the base plates already positioned before the first column arrives, the volunteers will be instructed to place the columns directly on their appropriate bases without any temporary placement. This will save us a tremendous amount of time that went wasted last year.
In next month's column, we'll go over some of the more artistic aspects to the event as you take a room-by-room "walk-through" of Balloon Lagoon. In the meantime, if you would like more information on the event or would like to volunteer, please feel free to visit the website at www.balloontownusa.com or call me at (513) 761-2602.
Until then, you'll excuse me if I have to get back to work!
Steven Jones, Aeration Decorations
