Regatta Updates

The Lord Mayor’s Hot Air Balloon Regatta flew across the skies of London on Sunday 7th June 2015 in a stunning and historic flight.

Launching at just after 5am, forty balloons took off from Shoreditch Park and climbed up and out over the river Thames flying between Tower Bridge, the Shard and Canary Wharf.

The iconic London skyline was filled with this unique sight for over an hour, with many people on the ground posting and tweeting pictures of the unexpected sight of the Regatta balloons. Throughout the morning #HotAirBalloons and #BalloonRegatta were trending on twitter.

The Regatta is in support of The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, working to raise awareness and funds for the Charity and to promote the City of London and those associated with it. The Lord Mayor’s hot air balloon was the first balloon to take off, followed closely by well known city corporations, who have also chosen to support the charity. These include Aberdeen Asset Management, Fortnum & Mason, Stirling Ackroyd, Renishaw, Ricoh, British Airways, British Telecom and Universal Pictures.

This is the first time a mass ascent has flown in London in over twenty years and since then the skyline and airspace has changed dramatically.

This event was wholly arranged and devised by Exclusive Ballooning’s Chief Pilot Andrew Holly, Operations Director Louise Moore and Philip Saunders of the City of London Corporation. An idea that initially started in 2013, Exclusive Ballooning set out to raise £50,000 from the event and prior to the launch, Andrew Holly had the pleasure of announcing that the current total raised by the Regatta was an impressive £78,884 and counting! A cheque will be presented to current Lord Mayor Alan Yarrow at Mansion House following the event.

AIRBORNE!!! A fantastic successful and safe flight across London this morning. Full story and pictures will follow but currently available via our Facebook page – www.facebook.com/exclusiveballooning

The weather is looking very promising for a north-south crossing of London and we are delighted to announce that the flight is now officially called ON for tomorrow, June 7th. We will publish more information later today. A further call will be made this evening.

THE FLIGHT IS ON. The launch site is Shoreditch Park in central London and the launch time is expected to be around 5am.

Sadly due to a forecast of poor weather, this Sunday’s flight has been stood down. We will now focus on the next flying slot which is June 7th.