Cleveland's Balloonfest Becomes Total Nightmare

on Saturday September 27 1986 close to 1.5 million balloons were launched from Cleveland's public square certainly a sight to behold but balloon fest as it was appropriately called if that's not a balloon fest I don't know what is also killed two people so first of all why balloon fest admirably it was a fundraising stunt put on by the United Way an organization that helps people in need and the cherry on top of the funds balloon fest would raise for the United Way was that it was also an attempt to break the world record for biggest simultaneous balloon launch which at the time was held by Disneyland's 30th birthday celebration from 1985 thousands of volunteers about 2,500 to be specific worked all night in all morning and especially designed enclosed space in Cleveland's public square which was covered in a sort of makeshift ceiling made out of loose netting which was there to capture and collect all of the 1.5 million balloons together after they were blown up and they did it and with the storm threatening the area they decided to let loose the balloons before the weather could rain on their parade and so off they went and what a spectacular balloon fest it was but that storm even though it didn't impact the balloon launch it still came and it turned a balloon fest into a balloon nightmare basically that storm blew the balloons all over the place and since what goes up must come down those balloons all 1.5 million of them came down all over the place and caused an absolute mess beyond the mess the balloons caused a runway to shut down at the local airport balloons landed in the pasture and nearby Medina Ohio and caused permanent damage to one woman's prized Arabian horses so many balloons covered up the surface of Lake Erie that the Coast Guard had to call off a search and rescue mission for two fishermen who had been reported missing earlier in the day they couldn't see through the blanket of balloons to make any attempt at finding the missing men days later the fishermen's bodies washed ashore the wife of one of the fishermen sued the United Way of Cleveland and the company that organized balloon fest for 3.2 million dollars she later settled on on disclosed terms in the end balloon fest did more harm than it did any good but perhaps that was just par for the course when it comes to Cleveland and their penchant for well-meaning promotions turned disasters see 10 cent beer night however one bit of good news the balloons were reportedly biodegradable preventing what surely would have been an even worse environmental disaster that could have been easily prevented you know by not blowing up and launching over 1 million balloons thanks for watching this video be sure to like this video and subscribe to this channel for more of history's weirdness that you won't find in your textbooks all those textbooks that you had to give back no one has their textbooks anymore right I don't have mine anyway there's this video here as this one here there's more stuff here there's more good stuff if you liked it stick around

Channel: Weird History

Views: 2,454,146

Rating: 4.8251348 out of 5

Keywords: balloonfest, balloonfest 86, balloonfest cleveland, balloonfest 86 cleveland, balloons cleveland, balloonfest 86 united way of cleveland, balloon fest 86, cleveland balloon festival

Id: OBZitH8VFEc

Length: 2min 56sec (176 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2018