The Mass Ascension had begun. For ten days every year in October, the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta draws thousands of hot-air balloon enthusiasts from all over the world to this spot in the New Mexico desert. More than five hundred balloons launch at once on weekend mornings during the festival in a spectacle known as the Mass Ascension. It is the largest simultaneous launch of hot-air balloons that occurs anywhere in the world.
