I had the opportunity to help with the Up Cluster Balloon Tour event in Minneapolis yesterday.
I had an AMAZING time! I was up at 2am to get to the Metrodome (baseball stadium) by 3am to help out with the event. We helped fill up all the balloons and attach them to an arm chair which is a replica of Carl’s . While waiting for the media to come (it was a media only event), all the crew got to go up in the balloons. Since we were inside the Metrodome, we got to go higher than they’ve been able to go before: around 130-150 ft. So at 6:15am, I went up in the balloons! I’m afraid of heights so it was freaky at first, but it was really really neat! Even got to go up a second time… although that one was a bit unexpected. I thought they were just testing lift off for the media, but I found myself back at full height. Once the media started to arrive around 7:30am, I helped bring the people up and down in the cluster balloons. There was a Pixar spokeswoman there to answer any Up/Pixar related questions from the media. She went up with a cup of coffee in her hands! Around 1:30pm we finally stared to deflate the balloons. I was there for 12 hours but it went by so quickly! And despite being there so long, I never ceased to be amazed by the sheer size of the balloon cluster and how it was lifting people to the top of the stadium! To thank the volunteers for their help, a radio station that was there all day, gave us tickets to an advanced screening of Up this weekend! How cool is that!! We also go UP t-shirts which we wore all day, pins, and DVD’s.
EDIT: I got an email from Jonathan (from the east coast cluster balloon tour and one of the coolest guys I’ve met) giving his permission to put this up on Pixar Planet and I was instructed to let you guys know that it is A LOT of work! He also provided a link to some photos on the official site: clusterballoon.com/UP/East_C … /index.asp
It was an experience I will remember for the rest of my life! Here are a few pictures. The rest are located here.
Set Up
Me Up in the Air
Cluster at Top Height
The Cluster and Some of the Crew
Yeah, it was very high! Normally it doesn’t go that high though. We were indoors so we didn’t have to worry about the wind and the stadium was really high, so they were able to push the limits of the venue!