The hot air balloon portion of Balloons Over 66 Weekend in Lincoln, a festival that has been one of the biggest annual attractions in Logan County, has been canceled for 2026.
However, Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch offered hope that hot air balloons will be seen during the Aug. 28-29 event in some fashion.
Seth Goodman, a major supporter of the event, posted on Facebook June 1 that the hot air balloon portion has been canceled for this year, citing “lack of funding, liability, etc.” He said other activities planned for the weekend will continue.
Roughly 35 hot air balloons participated at last year’s Balloons Over 66 Weekend, Goodman said in a text message to Illinois Times.
When contacted for comment, Goodman told Illinois Times “everything I am willing to say is posted on my social media post.”
“A little background — myself and a small group of other individuals started Balloons Over 66 after the local Chamber of Commerce closed and the event ceased,” Goodman’s post said. “However, I have personally funded (with the help of a few other small local businesses — THANK YOU!) the balloon portion to a tune of over $100,000 of personal savings over the past several years to ensure that it continued on for the community.”
Goodman clarified to IT: “I brought the balloon portion back on my own and have ran/funded it for 6-7 years with little to no city/county help. I am no longer willing to do that,” Goodman said in the text message. “Hopefully the city/county will step up and take it over. As mentioned in the post, the rest of the happenings that weekend are still slated to take place.”
Lincoln Mayor Tracy Welch, a hot air balloon owner and pilot-in-training, hinted that some type of activity involving hot air balloons could still happen at the event.
“Because our community is fortunate to have several local balloon pilots who fly regularly throughout the year, I believe there is a very good chance that residents and visitors will still see hot air balloons in the skies during this year’s event — weather permitting, of course,” Welch posted on the evening of June 2 on his Facebook page. “Stay tuned!”
Scott McCoy, Lincoln’s director of tourism, said he was surprised by Goodman’s Facebook post announcing the cancellation.
“I was personally not consulted about it or asked to take it over or anything on behalf of the city through the Office of Tourism,” McCoy said. “There’s obviously a bunch of us talking now to see what can happen. We would love to keep it. … A lot of people were completely caught off guard.”
Cancellation of the hot air balloons could impact tourism during the event weekend, McCoy said.
The weekend drew “thousands of attendees, filling local hotels, and bringing excitement and increased business to our local shops and restaurants,” The Balloons Over 66 Weekend Committee said in a June 2 statement on the Balloons Over 66 Weekend’s Facebook page.
Goodman has done a lot for the community through the event, McCoy said.
“There have been a lot of entities that have put a lot of effort and money into the event, including the city,” McCoy said. “Seth’s post is not necessarily complete, but it does make it sound like others are not contributing, and that’s just not true.”
The typical annual cost is about $30,000 for a balloon event of the size hosted in Lincoln, Welch said.
“Since joining the city council in 2016, I have known that the city of Lincoln has traditionally budgeted funding for this event. The amount has varied over the years but was typically around $2,000,” Welch said.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Welch asked the Lincoln City Council to increase the funding to $15,000 annually for three years.
“It is also important to note that similar support was provided to other components of this event, as well as the Railsplitter Festival,” Welch said.
Welch said that “a balloon event without balloons” sounds bad.
“I want to remind everyone that Balloons Over 66 is much more than just balloons,” Welch said. “Numerous organizations and dedicated volunteers work year-round to plan and organize their parts of this event.”
Open Arms Lincoln(The Church of a Second Chance) announced it would cancel its Family Fun Day for Balloons Over 66 Weekend because of the cancellation of the hot air balloons.
Open Arms Lincoln posted on its Facebook page June 2 it “made the difficult decision to cancel our portion of the event as well.”
“While we are disappointed, we fully understand the challenges involved and respect the decision that was made,” Open Arms Lincoln’s Facebook page said.
Lincoln hosted its first annual balloon festival in 1988 as an addition to a summer art show. The balloon festival split from the art show in 2015 and became a three-day weekend event, according to Destination Logan County Illinois.
The balloon festival was funded by the Lincoln-Logan Chamber of Commerce, which was $88,000 in arrears and closed in 2018.
By 2019, the new event Balloons Over Route 66 took place, planned by the Lincoln mayor and Goodman, a balloon pilot.
Welch thanked Goodman for keeping the balloon portion of Balloons Over Route 66 “alive for as long as he has.”
“I know it came with significant personal sacrifice, and I want him to know that those efforts have not gone unnoticed,” Welch said. “Hopefully, this year he will finally have the opportunity to enjoy the event and simply fly without the weight of those responsibilities on his shoulders.”
Tamara “Tammie” Browning is a freelance writer and reporter from Petersburg. She has a weekly newsletter, “Mother Road Moves,” on Substack that chronicles the people, places, things and happenings on Route 66 – from Illinois to California.
