BalloonFest Throwback Thursday Pics

These pictures all come from Balloonfest circa 199something. The world was a simpler place back then. A young Bill Clinton was putting the “X” in “eXecutive office”, the biggest racial issue was whether or not to teach ebonics in the classroom and, as far as we knew, Bill Cosby had never raped a single person.

Check out these Balloonfest pics from the era of grunge and if you start feeling nostalgic for the 90s, just remember that we’re still having some of those bands performing at our events to this day. Don’t forget, Gin Blossoms and Fastball are headlining on Sunday!!

1.)

At this BalloonFest the very first version of the game that would become known as “Beer Pong” was unveiled. As you can tell from the photo, not all the essentials that make up Beer Pong as we know it today were in place yet. For instance, the tables were much too long. Also, there was no beer. Or ping-pong balls. If you look closely, you’ll see that the “balls” were originally “baby ducks” in this earlier incarnation. How awesome would Beer-Duckling-Pong have been?!?

2.)

This is a picture of the Big Wave Pool as it looked in the early 90s. The really sad part was that the people in this picture were sitting in the DEEP end. Wet-n-Wild quickly realized that it would be a lot more fun if the water were more than ankle-deep and a renovation project saw the Wave Pool brought to it’s current depth.

3.)

In this picture the late Scott Ronson is making announcements during the early morning balloon launch. Scott passed away this week and we’re all going to miss him at this years festival. We’re going to do the BF in keeping with Scott’s spirit which mean we’re going to forget about our cares for awhile and concentrate on having a good time from sun-up to sundown.

Also, this is the only known photo of Scott in existence in which he isn’t holding either a cigarette or a glass of jack and coke.

4.)

Of course, Balloonfest is all about balloons and, HEY, here’s a nice pair right here! Notice the guy in the background…unibrow guy. If you ever wondered what “lecherous” looks like, there you go. And…dude…your eyebrows and your moustache look like they’re interchangeable!

5.)

Let’s play a game. It’s called “Unfashionable in Any Era”.

Take a moment and see how many fashion faux pas you can see.

This may take a while.

OK, here we go.

1.) Guy in the Red Cap…Mullets are not OK in any era.

2.) Neither are belly-shirts on guys. Come on, man. You’re disrespecting the Cowboys with that.

3.) Guy walking away to the left: I’m not saying you need to dress up or even match when you’re going to a water park. But that drab green shirt and magenta shorts make you look like an upside-down pimento olive.

4.) Tattoo guy, blue shorts: dress socks with dress shoes and swim trunks?? Really, darling, I can’t decide if that’s the most awful or most awesome thing I’ve ever seen. I’ll get back to you with a ruling once I decide.

5.) Frisbee-spinning guy: Looking good, buddy. I’m not going to fault a guy for wearing a tank-top to the pool…as long as your arms don’t look like freakish affronts to nature! Bro, why is the outside of your left arm so tan and the inside of your right arm is so…corpse-like?? Honestly, they don’t even look like arms from the same person. Are you a Frankenstein?? That left arm looks like it came from a field worker and the right arm looks like it used to belong to Marie Antoinette. It’s unnerving! Flip over once in a while.