The Doomed Cleveland Balloonfest of '86
The AtlanticCited 3× on HN, 2018–2021
documentary · general · evergreen · 2018–2021 on HN
A short Atlantic documentary on Cleveland's 1986 Balloonfest, when 1.5 million balloons were released at once and the attempt went badly wrong.
Cited as a shorthand for a spectacularly misguided publicity stunt, or as a classic embarrassing Cleveland episode.
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3 comments from Hacker News
The two best things denigrating Cleveland: Balloonfest ( ▶ this video ) & your already mentioned Mike Polk Jr's tourism videos ( ▶ this video & link ). If you can get past the dreary gray skies for 8 months of the year, Cleveland is cheap (even the nicer suburbs like Solon or Aurora) and has easy access to scenic western PA & upstate NY.
You will need a lot of pricey Helium-filled airships to replace an average container ship. I guess the airspace will look somewhat like the Cleveland Balloonfest '86... ▶ this video link
Welp. Pretty much as dumb as the Cleveland Balloon event[0]. I think it is funny as hell, but incredibly dumb, yes. "Cleveland, WE DID IT! YEEEAH". [0] ▶ this video