For some reason, balloons never fail to make any kid happy. I don’t know if it’s
the helium making the balloon float or the various colorful designs, but
seeing one certainly brings back wonderful memories of theme parks and carnival rides.
One or two are generally harmless, but what about releasing a million and a half balloons?
Is that scene from the Disney movie “Up” actually possible in real life?
What’s up, fact-natics! This is Discovery Amuse, serving up your daily dose of the most outrageous,
outlandish and out-of-this-world fun facts!
Keep watching if you wanna see How Releasing 1.5 Million Balloons Went HORRIBLY Wrong!
Up, up and away!
The Plan
In 1986, charity organization United Way from Cleveland
came up with a spectacular idea for a fundraising and publicity stunt—set
a new world record for simultaneously flying the most number of balloons!
The ambitious event was named Balloonfest, which aimed to beat Disneyland’s record by
releasing two million balloons into the air, all at the same time! People sold
sponsorships for filling up balloons, which would then fund the charity. United Way made
$1 for every 2 balloons filled up. The plan was ingenious in its simplicity.
The date was set; September 27, 1986.
It took six months to plan and prepare the whole thing.
They constructed a massive rectangular structure in Cleveland’s Public Square,
which housed the balloons while waiting to be released. As D-day approached, 2,500 volunteers
worked day and night, inflating the balloons and making them float up into the enormous net
hovering above. The volunteers even bandaged their fingers with tape to prevent getting blisters.
Everything was going smoothly, but the weather was threatening to rain on their parade.
The Execution
Of all the days, the weather decided to rear its ugly head just as the event drew closer. Weather
forecasters warned of an approaching rainstorm that spelled serious trouble for the organizers.
But the event couldn’t be delayed. All of Cleveland was counting on them.
And most of the balloons had been inflated!
Absolutely an event planner’s worst nightmare!
In response to the looming storm, the organizers stopped inflating at
1 and a half million balloons because they’re gonna beat the record at that number anyway!
On the day of the event, the team decided to release the balloons earlier than scheduled.
At 1:50PM, spectators, volunteers,
and the flocks of local press all waited in bated breath as the organizers counted down.
The electrified crowd were all shades of amazed as the colorful cloud of balloons billowed out into
the gray skies and wrapped the Terminal Tower in a warm embrace. It was an astounding achievement
and a source of great pride for the city that had the infamous nickname “Mistake on the Lake.”
They had just broken a world record, and the event would certainly put Cleveland on the map!
But all the celebration was cut short when the weight of the air
finally caught up with the flying balls of latex.
The dream-like display quickly turned into a devastating disaster.
The Aftermath
Mother nature seemed to be not too amused with the Clevelanders’ stunt.
The cold winds and rain propelled the balloons back into Earth, driving them towards freeways,
rivers, and Lake Erie looking like a plague of biblical proportions.
The balloons littered the land and clogged the waterways all over Northeast Ohio.
A lot of traffic accidents had also been reported. Either the drivers swerved to avoid the balloons,
or they took their eyes off the road to marvel at the spectacle. The nearby Burke Lakefront
Airport also had to shut down one of their runways thanks to the wet, un-popped balloons.
It was total pandemonium!
Some of the balloons landed on a pasture where Arabian racehorses were located.
The horses got stressed at the sight of the balloons and even injured themselves out
of fear. The owner of the racehorses ended up suing United Way for $100,000 worth of damages.
But just when everyone thought things couldn’t get any worse,
the ill-fated Balloonfest inadvertently claimed the lives of two people.
The day before the event, two fishermen, Raymond Broderick and Bernard Sulzer, went
fishing on Lake Erie, but their wives reported that the two men didn’t return the following day.
Their boat was anchored west of Edgewater Park break wall,
but the fishermen were nowhere to be found. The Coast Guard conducted a search and rescue for
the two missing fishermen on September 27, the same day the infamous balloons were released.
Time was of the essence for the rescue operation,
but the Balloonfest turned the difficult into virtually impossible.
The floating balloons the riddled the lake made it harder for the Coast Guard to find the missing
fishermen, so much so that they had to suspend their search until the waters were cleared of
the helium-filled debris. Two days later, their lifeless bodies were found washed up on the shore.
Grieving for her loss, one of the wives sued United Way for hampering with the Coast Guard’s
search and rescue. The wife sued for 3.2 million dollars but later
settled on an undisclosed amount.
The Impact
If there was a silver lining in all this,
it was the fact that the balloons were biodegradable—or so the organizers claimed.
Weeks after the event, people were still picking up balloons
hanging around beaches, and some of them even reached as far as Ontario, Canada!
This prompted Ontario resident P. Allen Woodliffe to file a complaint against United Way,
claiming that since the balloons were still made of plastic, it would take
months for them to break down. Aside from the time and expenses needed to clean
their beaches up, the balloons also posed a threat to wildlife that might ingest them.
Some critics also pointed out the hypocrisy of the event.
Obviously, the Balloonfest was not a cheap undertaking, costing upwards of half a
million dollars. Some say United Way could have used that amount for a more charitable cause,
instead of staging such an expensive spectacle that reeked of hot air.
After some good ol’ reflection, George Fraser, the Director of Marketing and Communications of United
Way, released a 1994 profile expressing how he felt about the event. By the early 1980s, Fraser
had left P&G for a three-year stint as Director of Marketing and Communications for United Way.
The period was marked by an incident Fraser calls both his greatest success and his biggest failure.
But amidst all of the controversy, United Way still got what they wished for. The
Guinness Book of World Records officially awarded them the record for the “largest
mass balloon release” in its 1988 book. 1,429,632 balloons to be exact.
The charity institution, for all intents and purposes, had the best intentions in mind.
Unfortunately, just when we least expect it… shit happens.
So, what did you think of the Cleveland Balloonfest? Yay
or nay? Exciting or excruciating? Let us know in the comments section below!
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Want more high-flying antics? Then check out our countdown of the 10
Rocket Launches that went Horribly Wrong!
‘Til then, stay awesome, fact-natics! And see you in the next video!