X user Colie505 shared a video capturing the splendor of the 53rd annual Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, joyfully declaring, “Balloon Fiesta is so beautiful!!”

The festival, taking place from October 4 to 12, 2025, welcomes over 1,000 pilots and around 500,000 spectators for nine days of dazzling aerial performances. Events include Dawn Patrol flights before sunrise, massive coordinated launches known as Mass Ascensions, playful Special Shape Rodeos with balloons shaped like dinosaurs and castles, musical Glowdeos lighting up the night, and a spectacular fireworks finale.

In the footage, a sweeping roadside view transitions to vivid close-ups of countless colorful balloons rising into a clear blue sky. Several display red, white, and blue stripes with stars, while others take creative forms such as a VW bus, banana, and watermelon. Pilots can be seen guiding their balloons over parked cars, trees, fields, roads, and city edges as sunlight brightens the horizon.

The scene captures the festive energy of the gathering. On October 6, during the third day of the event, two balloons made contact with power lines, triggering a brief outage that paused flights for about half an hour. No one was injured, and the fiesta soon continued, filling the sky once again with color and motion.