We recently returned from an amazing trip filming high up in the Swiss Alps at the 40th Festival International de Ballons in Chateau d’Oex. The graceful beauty of the balloons is a spectacle to behold and is the subject of a series of short films produced by RABBIT & SNAIL FILMS.
Château-d’Oex plays host to a spectacular 9-day festival every January that brings together pilots from over twenty countries, with nearly a hundred hot air balloons taking part. Created in 1979, the festival attracts crowds over two weekends, with hot air balloons in special shapes, air displays and model hot air balloons. It was from Château-d’Oex in 1999 that the Breitling Orbiter – piloted by Bertrand Piccard and Brian Jones – set off for the first circumnavigation of the world in a hot air balloon.
Our Director of Photography, Shoudai Zou (Twitter: @Mr_Zou) took to the skies to get some amazing aerial shots of the town and to get up close to some of the balloons in flight.
We’re busy editing all the footage that we gathered during our visit to the festival and will soon start releasing our series of short films that go behind the scenes of the world’s most magnificent celebration of balloon flight.
Our thanks go out to the organisers of the Festival International de Ballons for giving us access and for all their help and support. We’re already looking forward to 2019.