Taiwan’s hot air balloon festival postponed but not deflated

Scale of event will depend on course of coronavirus pandemic in coming months

Taiwan News
Date: 2020/05/04
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — This year’s Taiwan International Balloon Festival will be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Taitung County Tourism Department Director Yu Ming-hsun (余明勳) announced on Monday (May 4).

The balloon festival, a marquee event on the county’s summer tourism calendar, was originally scheduled to take place from June 27 to Aug. 16. It will now run from July 11 through Aug. 30, CNA reported on Monday.

The 51-day event will be held at Luye Highland. However, the Taitung County government said that the size of the event will be dependent on how the pandemic pans out.

Since the pandemic is still spreading across the globe, foreign balloon teams invited to the event will have to go through a compulsory 14-day quarantine once they enter Taiwan and another after they return home. The county government said this may discourage some aeronauts from leaving their countries to participate.    [FULL  STORY]