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The Lord Lieutenant of the County, Gilbert K Cox M.B.E. J.P., will perform the opening ceremony in the John Hastie Park on Saturday 29th August at 2 pm

Seventeen balloons will take place, including both Muir Mofat's big balloons; The Piper and The Jaguar Car.

Flights will take place, weather permitting, on Friday around 6.30pm and around 6.30am and 6.30pm on Saturday and Sunday. Come and watch the balloons soar over Strathaven. You can see a short video clip from last year, on this site's home page.

On Saturday at dusk, shortly after 9 pm, there will be a Night Glow in the park. The balloons are inflated and perform to music, while tethered to their recovery vehicles. This is always worth seeing; the huge, lit up balloons look fabulous in the dark and the music adds great atmosphere.

A full programme of stage and arena events is being arranged.

A highlight of Saturday’s events will be the Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers group, performing fabulous, loud, rousing and extremely dramatic, Japanese taiko drumming. You have to be fit and focused to do taiko drumming and it is very exhilarating to watch. There is a link to their website on this site's Links page

The Koda group from Biggar will perform on Sunday afternoon. Koda is a young, fun, upbeat ceilidh band who have received considerable acclaim. For some toe tapping enjoyment, they mustn't be missed. View their website, which is listed on our links page, to see and hear them.

A rally of fabulous old cars, motor bikes and tractors will again take place. The winners of each group will be invited to parade their beauty for a final judging on Sunday afternoon.

There will also be various craft, food and other stalls plus children’s rides, so plenty of entertaining things to view, buy or do.

Come along and enjoy the weekend – admission is free – but we hope that you will take part in the Grand Raffle and buy a souvenir programme

To hire a stall in the park on the days of the festival, see Stall Hires contact details on the Contact page