The 42nd International Balloon Festival in Château-d’Oex is entirely in keeping with the motto Adventure, Science and Freedom. Especially the scientific activities and events were a central theme of the festival.
A
thematic orientation of the traditional balloon festival is new and a captivating idea. But how does that fit together: colourful hot-air balloons that float in the sky above Château-d’Oex for nine days, and science? The balloon in the service of science
Balloons and science are a perfect match, as the public lecture on the opening day of the festival showed. One of the main speakers was Hans Peter Beck, researcher at Cern, president of the Swiss Physical Society and lecturer at the Universities of Bern and Fribourg. He explained one role of balloons in science: cosmic radiation is the magic word. The German physicist Albert Gockel discovered cosmic rays on several balloon flights up to 4500 metres from 1909 onwards, even if he had not yet named it that way at the time. In 1912, the Austrian physicist Victor Franz Hess ascended seven times in a balloon to prove that a previously unexplored radiation from space penetrates the atmosphere. In 1936 he received the Nobel Prize in
Physics for his discovery. According to Beck, the hot-air balloon has been in the service of science for quite some time. Science meets art
Another approach to science was presented by the scientist and artist Michael Hoch, who is a friend of Beck and has been working on his project Where Science Meets Art for several years. He showed, for example, works in which he cut up scientific photographs to represent matter and antimatter and interspersed them with close-ups of flowers. This year’s cooperation developed rather accidentally. After the director of the Espace Ballon, Jacqueline Trenta-Dubé, had seen Hoch’s works, she brought his art to Château-d’Oex. It was through her that the contact between the Cern scientists Hoch and Beck and Fred-Paulin Gétaz, the chairman of the organising committee of the International Balloon Festival, was established. Once they had met, the motto idea for the festival seemed like a logical consequence.
Major awards
Another presentation focused on adventure. After the explanations of the Cern scientists, Nicolas Tièche and Laurent Sciboz, the winners of the gas balloon competitions Gordon Bennett 2019 and America’s Challenge 2017, reported of their gas balloon adventures. At the Gordon Bennet the team spent over 82 hours and 1774 km in the air, at the America’s Challenge it was over 59 hours and 3670 km. “Can you imagine what it’s like to spend 82:03 hours in a one by one meter basket with your team partner? You have to get along very well”, joked Tièche. They only sleep four hours a day during such competitions, two times two hours. Food supplies and technical equipment are also stored in a minimum of space. In order for these projects to succeed, the pilots can rely on a team of about 20 people at the base in Freiburg, who take care of the flight arrangements, in particular of the weather conditions. “We want to keep the motto concept for the festival”, reveals Gétaz after the successful 2020 edition. BASED ON AVS/SONJA WOLF
The 42nd edition of the balloon festival has it all: Besides the view of beautifully colourful hot-air balloons in the sky, visitors could find out about interesting facts in the field of science.
Sonja Wolf
SPORTS & LEISURE
SCIENCE ENTERS THE BALLOON FESTIVAL
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GstaadLife 2 I 2020