Cleveland Fundraiser Released 1.5M Balloons, Then Everything 'That Could Go Wrong Went Wrong' Virginia ChamleeNovember 3, 2025 at 12:00 AM 0 Bettmann Archive/Getty Balloonfest 1986 Balloonfest '86 promised to raise publicity for the stillrebounding city of Cleveland with the release of around 1.5 million balloons, but things did not go as planned More than 100,000 people filled downtown's Public Square for the charitable event, watching as the balloons were released, and quickly popped and plummeted into roads and waterways But while it's viewed in hindsight as something of an environmental di...
- - Cleveland Fundraiser Released 1.5M Balloons, Then Everything 'That Could Go Wrong Went Wrong'
Virginia ChamleeNovember 3, 2025 at 12:00 AM
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Balloonfest 1986 -
Balloonfest '86 promised to raise publicity for the still-rebounding city of Cleveland with the release of around 1.5 million balloons, but things did not go as planned
More than 100,000 people filled downtown's Public Square for the charitable event, watching as the balloons were released, and quickly popped and plummeted into roads and waterways
But while it's viewed in hindsight as something of an environmental disaster, the scale of the event set a record
On Sept. 27, 1986, the Cleveland chapter of United Way planned to release some 1.5 million balloons — part publicity stunt, part record-breaker. Balloonfest '86 promised to put Cleveland — then a city on the rebound — on the map, but things did not go as planned.
FOX 8's Neil Zurcher, who covered the event at the time, later recounted of Balloonfest, "It was like almost a volcano when it went off. Just about everything in the world that could go wrong went wrong that weekend."
More than 100,000 people filled downtown's Public Square for the charitable event, watching as the balloons were released.
But just as quickly as they were freed, they quickly dispersed, drifting over the city and nearby Lake Eerie, where hundreds of thousands popped, plummeted and ultimately settled. The atmosphere, which began as jubilant, shifted.
Bettmann Archive/Getty
Balloonfest 1986
"It was overwhelming, balloons start like boiling in the air," FOX 8's David Moss, who also covered the event, told the outlet in an earlier interview. "You thought, 'Wow, we're gonna drown in these balloons.' "
In recent years, news outlets have noted traffic chaos and shutdowns at a nearby airport as a result of the falling balloons.
But as John Grabowski — chief historian at the Western Reserve Historical Society, a visiting associate professor at Case Western Reserve University, and the editor of the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History — explains, the event wasn't immediately treated as a disaster.
"That's something that's come up rather recently in the last 15 to 20 years, as we become more conscious of the environment," he tells PEOPLE.
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Grabowski acknowledges, however, that there were issues in the moments leading up to the event — including inclement weather, which forced the balloons' release to take place earlier than initially planned.
"There was bad weather, which nobody could predict," he says. "So, many of the balloons didn't get far, and they fell on city streets, reportedly causing traffic accidents and spooking a horse. A man sued for that."
Indeed, as the balloons were released, they were almost immediately met with strong winds, which, per Case Western's encyclopedia entry about the event, "blew many of the balloons north of the city, and rain caused the balloons to fall immediately."
Per Case Western: "Falling balloons also littered much of the city and clogged the area's waterways. Traffic accidents occurred throughout the city as drivers attempted to dodge falling balloons. Eventually, balloons reached as far south as Medina County, spooking a prized Arabian horse, whose owner would sued and settled with United Way. Within a few weeks, balloons were littering beaches as far as Ontario."
Grabowski adds: "One of the biggest stories is that when they fell on to Lake Eerie, the Coast Guard was searching for two missing boaters and couldn't find them due due to the balloons on the lake."
The boaters had been reporting missing prior to the event, and their boat had washed ashore the morning of — but it would be days before their bodies were found, with the balloons affecting the search once they hit the water.
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Stock image of balloons.
Fox 8's Zurcher told his outlet in a retrospective that he spoke to one of the pilots of the Coast Guard helicopter, who described flying through the balloons as akin to "flying through an asteroid belt, you just couldn't see. And the balloons on the water looked like heads, and the men weren't found until several days after the balloons."
As Grabowski explains, the event came at a time when Cleveland was "just getting back on its feet," and rebounding from population loss of the 1960s — which came in the wake of World War II, as manufacturing jobs shifted to other regions or overseas.
But the future looked bright. The city had just been announced as the new home of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in May 1986 — a move that would bring a major tourist attraction to the city nearly a decade later.
In short, Grabowski says, "Balloonfest was an event in a city looking to be an amazing place in the country. This was a turnaround period."
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Entrance of Burke-Lakefront Cleveland City Airport in Cleveland.
And while Balloonfest was, in hindsight, something of an environmental disaster, it hasn't colored the view of Cleveland among locals — even in the immediate aftermath of the event.
Per the Cleveland Plain-Dealer's editor, Chris Quinn, in a letter published in 2024: "To say that Balloonfest killed the fishermen is ridiculous. To paint Balloonfest as a horror or disaster is, too. Yes, there were highway collisions, but none appear serious. Yes, the airport closed for 30 minutes, but we're talking about Burke Lakefront, not Cleveland Hopkins. How big of a deal is Burke Lakefront closing for 30 minutes? It's been closed regularly for entire weekends for air shows or car races."
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Quinn added that the event was referred to as "fun-filled" in stories weeks and years later. It wasn't until more than a decade after the 1986 event that words like "disaster" began to be tied to it.
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The Terminal Tower, a skyscraper on the Public Square in Cleveland.
"The way it's been written about in recent years colors the image [of Cleveland and the event itself]," Grabowski concurs. "But I don't think it's embedded in the local psyche. And I don't think it's really impacted the city's image. In fact, I don't recall even reading or knowing about it until it was brought to my attention years later."
That's likely because the sheer environmental impact of the event wasn't reexamined until years later.
"The positive thing about Balloonfest is that it brought together various members of our community — this was a record: 2 million balloons. Everyone took pride in it," Grabowski says.
He adds: "But when you look at it from a modern perspective, you're looking at a million pieces of plastic — balloons washing up on the shore of Lake Ontario, the traffic events reported ... Even if Balloonfest had been a success, those balloons would have impacted the environment wherever they came down."
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Source: Entertainment
Published: November 02, 2025 at 06:37PM on Source: LUCIE MAG
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