Taunggyi Fire Balloon Festival

At the Tazaungdaing full moon in November, Taunggyi holds a balloon festival unlike the gentle daytime version elsewhere. Teams spend the year building hot air balloons of paper several metres across, and at night they launch them carrying racks of fireworks that ignite as the balloon rises. When it works, the sky fills with light above a crowd of tens of thousands. When it does not, a burning balloon comes down into that crowd, and injuries happen most years. Daytime competitions launch animal-shaped balloons with no pyrotechnics.

What you actually see

• The night launches - paper balloons carrying firework racks that ignite as they climb.
• The daytime balloons - animal and figure shapes competing for height and form.
• The teams - year-long village and workshop projects, judged in front of the crowd.
• The festival ground - a fairground of food, music and stalls around the launch field.

When to go

The festival runs for about a week around the Tazaungdaing full moon, which falls in November and moves year to year. The night launches are the main event. Accommodation in Taunggyi and around Inle sells out well in advance.

Honest expectations

This is a genuinely hazardous event: balloons fail, fireworks fire horizontally, and injuries to spectators occur most years. Standing well back from the launch area and away from the downwind side is basic sense. Crowds are enormous, the ground is chaotic, and leaving at the end takes hours.

Nearby

Inle Lake is an hour west down the hill, and Kakku is southeast of the town.