Great Forest Park Balloon Race Great Forest Park Balloon Race Held the third weekend in September each year in St. Louis's Forest Park, the Great Forest Park Balloon Race today hosts more than 67 balloons and 200,00 spectators. The Forest Park event is the largest and one of the most prestigious one-day balloon races in the world. In December 1973, pioneer woman pilot Nikki Caplan brought the first Forest Park hot-Air balloon race to St. Louis, with six balloons and 20 spectators, at an informal weekend gathering. Particularly prestigious and challenging, the race is by invitation only to pilots with greater than average requirements for flight hours and experience.
Launch is from the middle of a major city, as opposed to being in open fields.
Backyards, baseball diamonds, golf courses, lawns, street intersections, and, in one instance, the walled convent grounds of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, have been pressed into service as landing sites.