2018 Riverdays to join forces with the Midland Balloon Festival, change date
September 21st, 2017Beginning in 2018, the Midland Balloon Festival will be a part of the Midland Area Community Foundation’s annual Riverdays Festival, another weekend-long event that draws thousands of visitors each year. The partnership will bring about a location and date change for the event.
“This is a natural partnership,” said Dave Kell, co-chair of the Riverdays planning committee. “Since we moved most events to the Farmers Market side of the river this year with overwhelmingly positive feedback, Chippewassee Park is now wide open. It’s a perfect opportunity to combine these events.”
“Events like this take a ton of behind-the-scenes work. By combining Riverdays and the Balloon Festival, we’re able to focus more on doing what we do best: flying balloons,” said Steve King, competition director for the Midland Balloon Festival.
The dates for the event are set for August 2 – 5, 2018. Riverdays will take place on the 3rd and 4th, with the other two days primarily featuring hot air balloon events.
“In addition to the Balloon Festival and other aspects of Riverdays, we culminate the weekend with the Esther Gerstacker Fireworks show,” said Kell. “We’ve long thought about spacing our display from the July 4th show. Combining these events is a great opportunity to do that.”
Many of the events surrounding the Riverdays weekend will take advantage of the updated festival-friendly streetscape in downtown Midland, including the Main Street Glow event on Thursday, August 2nd and the Riverdays street party on August 3rd. Event organizers say that more information will be available on both websites in the coming months.
