Balloon Fiesta

Work >> Balloon Fiesta 2025

Extending the life of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (AIBF) – beyond the nine days it runs in October each year – is paramount to not only preparing for and executing an extraordinary event, but also sharing the exciting story of ballooning far and wide.

Coordinated media relations outreach and ongoing interaction, as well as digital and social media, provide vital opportunities to extend the life of this event. Since 1997, The Garrity Group has been leveraging its expertise to provide notable reach and impact surrounding AIBF.

Background

The Garrity Group first started its media relations (traditional and digital) work with the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta (Balloon Fiesta) in 1997. Leveraging media relations, digital and social media, the firm has helped the Balloon Fiesta set and defend three world records in the Guinness Book of World Records, launch a thousand balloons (in the year 2000), and helped generate media coverage worthy of the largest visitor event in New Mexico.

The most recent 53rd ExxonMobil Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta occurred October 4-12, 2025. The event included 537 hot air balloons and 651 registered pilots, including 103 special shape balloons and 90 remote control hot air balloons.

Challenge

Balloon Fiesta is an annual nine-day event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that is recognized as the world’s premier ballooning event. The Garrity Group has been engaged by the event for nearly two decades to handle all media relations (Balloon Fiesta was one of the firm’s first clients when The Garrity Group opened its doors in 1997). Our ongoing challenge is to raise awareness and extend the Balloon Fiesta experience beyond the nine-day event that runs each October.

It is our continuous mission and challenge to ensure Albuquerque is known as THE premier destination for the largest ballooning event in world and share the unique history and ongoing interest in ballooning. Our challenge year after year is to keep themes and narratives surrounding Balloon Fiesta fresh and exciting – working diligently to showcase new stories, refresh old stories, and give the best experience possible to newcomers and repeat-attendees alike.

Solution

Complementing the traditional media approach, The Garrity Group has developed a variety of narratives to tell the Balloon Fiesta story – giving each unique feature of Fiesta its time to shine. From Dawn Patrol to Mass Ascension, and Special Shapes to Flight of Nations – Balloon Fiesta features countless stories and moments that we take great care to identify and promote.

For the 53rd annual AIBF, The Garrity Group worked with Balloon Fiesta staff, sponsors and vendors to develop narratives that share Balloon Fiesta’s story related to the inaugural Globito Glow in the Village event, second annual New Mexico Day, the 2025 Official Serigraph Poster, Official Sponsors, new special shapes, international participation in the 53rd event, Balloon Discovery center enhanced activities, Balloon Fiesta event safety measures, event food and merchandise concessions, Cindy Petrehn Memorial Photo Contest and more.

In advance of and during the event, media were invited to cover Balloon Fiesta in person or remotely via a live stream coordinated by the Media Arts Collective in Albuquerque. For the 2025 event, 811 media credentials were issued to representatives from 130 organizations, including reporters, TV crews, social media influencers and journalists. This included international and national TV crews, New Mexico’s major media outlets, as well as social media influencers.

Our team also continued to leverage Facebook, X/Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok in 2025 to communicate and engage with guests and to introduce the event to new audiences. Guests and followers have continued to use these platforms in recent years to ask questions, share comments, and display grievances – both publicly and through direct messages. Our team used these platforms to communicate important information such as event and weather updates, parking lot status, and rain check policies.

Results

The nine-day Balloon Fiesta event in 2025 concluded a year-long coordinated communications approach on behalf of the event, sponsors and participating pilots/operators. This effort included traditional/digital planning, messaging, media relations, issue management, social media content, media monitoring, developing/distributing a monthly newsletter (with 106,206 subscribers), as well as coordinating awareness for internal departments and sponsor communication/coordination through traditional, digital and owned media channels.

The year-long, proactive media outreach and digital management for Balloon Fiesta in 2025 resulted in a reach of 23,219,912,510. This includes:

4 billion print and online views (3,488 articles)
8 billion broadcast views (3,128 stories)
3 million Facebook unique views
1 million Instagram unique views
767 thousand X/Twitter impressions
327 thousand TikTok unique views

**These results stem from a year-round outreach tracked using paid/free subscription services (Meltwater, TV Eyes, Cision, PressRelations, Google search, and other industry standards).

We are proud to report there were 851,994 estimated guest visits for the 53rd event.