PROVO, Utah — For the last 42 years, the Bramble Family has brought together the community in Provo for the America Freedom Festival — with their hot air balloons.
About 25 hot air balloons gathered on Fox Field as the sun came up on Friday morning. The teams of pilots worked to inflate them before bringing their passengers to their baskets.
With a few presses on the gas, flames and air fuel the balloon as it floats into the air. It’s all in celebration of the 4th of July.
“It’s one of the most magical experiences,” Zac Bramble, one of the pilots, said. “And we get to teach the next generation, and they’re excited to do it, even at 5 in the morning.”
For pilots like Susan and Greg Lindsey, there’s nothing they’d rather do than share their hot air balloon with the community. Susan has been involved with hot air balloons as a crew member since 2007. But when she was diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer in 2012, she knew that she wanted to live her dreams.
“As it got to be a worse and worse diagnosis and I got weaker and weaker, I just decided that I didn’t want cancer to take everything from me,” she said. “I wanted to keep flying and keep ballooning.”
So a few years after the diagnosis, they bought their first balloon. “A few years later, we were asleep, and he woke up and thought that I wasn’t breathing,” Susan said. “It scared him, and so he said to himself the only thing she’s ever wanted her whole life was a hot air balloon. He woke me up and was like, ‘Let’s get a balloon’.”
So in Arizona in 2016, they started AZ Air Ventures with their first balloon called ‘Just Ducky’. In 2019, they created their second balloon that represents their love for Apache Lake and hot air ballooning, showcasing the struggles and beauty of life.
They’re good friends with the Bramble family and have been bringing their balloons to the America Freedom Festival’s Balloon Fest for just about 10 years. “It’s just the most serene feeling you can get,” she said. “I feel like the closest to God you can get because you’re just like, wow, look at this earth and the beauty we have.”
On Friday night from 8:30 pm to 10 pm, the balloons will be inflated again for Balloon Glow night as they are lit up against the evening sky.
