The Adirondack Balloon Festival will not soar this year due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, organizers announced on Wednesday.

The Board of Directors of the Adirondack Balloon Festival shared the news on its social media pages that this year's event scheduled for Sept. 17 to 20 will be canceled.

Adirondack Balloon Festival Board of Directors President Mark Donahue shared the following statement:

“The most important part in planning in an event of this magnitude is safety. Safety is not only for our balloon pilots, but also includes our spectators, law enforcement, public works, fire and rescue staff, vendors, volunteers, musical acts, and our landowners in the region. This is an unprecedented decision for us and one we did not take lightly. Our decision process included discussions with state officials and the Federal Aviation Administration officials as well. This event is for the community by the community. We have a responsibility to make certain social distancing occurs and we do not feel we could make that happen with the tens of thousands of people who attend our event.”

The event will shift toward planning the event for 2021.

“Our Board is already looking ahead to 2021”, Donahue said. With funding being a serious concern for the future, the festival hopes to embark on some fundraising activities this fall to help support 2021. The dates for the 2021 Adirondack Balloon Festival will be Sept. 23-26, 2021.

The annual event is held in City Park and at the Warren County airport. A block party in downtown Glens Falls was added in recent years.

This would have been the event's 48th year.

Last year's event saw record crowds and six of seven launches across the four-day event.

Check back to poststar.com for more details.

———

©2020 The Post Star (Glens Falls, N.Y.)

Visit The Post Star (Glens Falls, N.Y.) at www.poststar.com

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.