Last August we attended the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta as members of the public. We'd been before and had experienced a variety of weather, but we were immensely lucky in 2015 and enjoyed 3 launches of 100+ balloons into clear blue skies.

The layout of the site is ideal - nicely lit for photography, you are always close to the action and there is always something going on.

It does involve early starts if you want to see a morning mass ascent, but the effort is well worth it if there's light winds and sunshine.