This is a yearly even that takes place in Decatur, Alabama for one weekend in May. I think it’s Memorial Day Weekend every year, but don’t chisel that in stone. 2900 point mallard circle SE 35601
Let’s get down to business. First, if you came here for quality pictures, you won’t find any. I’m not resizing or touching anything up today. For better quality, find me on instagram or better yet, check out the hashtag #alabamajubiliee on Instagram.
What is it? The Alabama Jubilee is a hot air balloon festival that takes place At Point Mallard Park in Decatur, Alabama once a year in May.
What’s so great about it? It’s an opportunity to see a bunch of hot air balloons (where else can you do that?) in one place and the kids will love it! If the wind is right, they tether balloons and let you take short rides, about 100 feet up (total guess) and they bring you back down. Since it was too windy (my licked finger to in the air trick said there was none), no one got to ride Sunday.
Straight Facts:
1. Parking is free and so is this event, but you may (probably will) have to walk.
2. There are lots of food trucks and they are just as expensive as any other food truck you’ve ever visited. If you have a large family. Pack plenty of food and water plus SUNSCREEN. They do allow coolers, so bring yours!
3. We had to purchase tickets to buy food or ride the inflatables. You pay 1$ a ticket and they come in sheets of 20, so 20$ for a sheet. You then take these tickets to the different vendors and use these instead of money and credit cards. The vendors don’t take cash or credit cards.
4. There are inflatables for kids and there was a train ride and a bungee trampoline type thing. Inflatable slides were 2 tickets and that allows you to slide down once. The bungee trampoline was 8 ticket. The train ride was 4 tickets. A snow cone will cost you 4 tickets and I think they large cone was 5 tickets. A corn dog was 4 tickets. A 20 ounce beverage was 2 tickets.
5. Point Mallard Water Park is directly across the street from the festival and I wish we had brought swimsuits because we would have done that during the day, then walked over to the festival around 5pm for the night show. The festival was HOT.
6. The balloon glow at night is THE BEST PART, of course this is only my opinion, but really, IT’S THE BEST PART! If you don’t go for anything else, go for this. The announcer says 1-2-3 GLOW and all the balloon operators light the fire and the balloons glow and it’s absolutely beautiful. I squealed and cheered like a 5 year old girl!
7. There is a firework show well worth seeing. Seriously, it probably lasted 20 minutes and they didn’t hold back. You can skip the 4th of July celebrations after you’ve seen this and your younger kids will never know. If you’ve taught them about calendars by now-rookie move. There’s a better way; I’ll teach you.
8. There is an arts and crafts show that does take money/credit cards depending on the vendor and also a car show.
Do they allow dogs? Yes, on a leash.
Do they allow coolers? Yes, but I don’t think they allow alcoholic beverages and there are police officers walking around.
Can I bring my hammock and lawn chairs? YES! Set up along the tree line and get ready for the balloons!
How much money should I bring? I’m so glad you asked. We had 8 people with us this day, plus a dog and we could have quite easily blown through 200.00 or more. EASILY. We Brough a cooler with water and we ordered Dominoes Pizza that evening while we were waiting on the balloon glow. The nearest Dominoes is roughly 2 miles away, therefore; one of us went and picked up the pizza.
What time do the balloons arrive? Great question! I was under the impression that they were up all day. You will have to check the schedule to see what times they are being set up. A new schedule is released each year and I’ll try and remember to post it. Below is this year’s schedule.
Can I fly my drone? No, unfortunately not, but you can set up down the street. I saw some people on insta that did that! Perfectly legal and genius.
