CELEBRATING 50 YEARS Safety First: Public Safety at Balloon Fiesta BY HARRY SEASON n any given year, nearly one million people will visit Balloon Fiesta Park during the nine days of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta® (AIBF). During any one of those events, as many as 80,000 people visit Balloon Fiesta Park, a gathering that would make the Park the fifth largest city in New Mexico! IThe Board of Directors and staff of the Balloon Fiesta take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of the event. This includes not only flight safety involving the thousands of balloon flight operations during the nine-day event, but also making sure our guests on the ground at Balloon Fiesta Park are safe. To help AIBF meet these extraordinary requirements, we have established a Balloon Fiesta Public Safety program, whose main purpose is the protection of our guests at Balloon Fiesta Park in all aspects not involving flight operations, which is maintained through its own safety programs (see the article on page 218). The Balloon Fiesta Public Safety program is designed to provide law enforcement, fire and rescue capabilities and medical assistance to our guests. The Public Safety program is led by an AIBF Director of Public Safety who manages the integration of multiple federal, state, county and city agencies to ensure coordinated and prompt responses to any incident that might occur at Balloon Fiesta Park during the event. These coordination activities include multiple meetings conducted over many months preceding each Balloon Fiesta, where roles and responsibilities of Right: Albuquerque Police – just one of the alphabet soup of agencies involved in public safety at the Balloon Fiesta. ® 208 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta