The Kawartha Challenge Hot Air Balloon Competition, 1987
In July 1987, Fenelon Falls Reeve Barclay Taylor and the Chamber of Commerce arranged the Kawartha Challenge, a hot air balloon competition. The event would be something new that the community had not seen before, and it would be a great way to bring people to the village. It included midway rides, a musical performance by Brian Switzer, a pancake breakfast at the Fenelon Falls Legion, along with both bikini and sunshine boy contests—it was the 1980s after all! But the sight that few locals would soon forget was the balloons floating gracefully over the village.
A hot air balloon show was a big production that required plenty of volunteers. Twenty-four safety boats patrolled Cameron and Sturgeon Lakes, with at least two crew members in each vessel, just in case a balloon ran out of fuel over the water. Seventy more volunteers served as the ground crews, to help out where the balloons landed. Another fifty volunteers were the event crew on site at the fairgrounds. Visitors there could go up in a tethered hot air balloon, to safely have the experience of flying. The Fenelon Agricultural Society was on site serving beef on a bun—popular event fare in that era.
The event attracted twenty-two competing pilots, including local entrant John Adams. Owen Keown of California was the overall winner—but none of the pilots won the major prizes for specific achievements: a Jaguar replica, a Confederation Log Home, a Jeep, a motorcycle and a boat. John Williamson won the draw for a champagne balloon flight over the village on Sunday evening. At the Lions Club Sunshine Festival, Brian Beukeboom of Lindsay was the winning sunshine boy, while Karen Abbott of Fenelon Falls won the bikini contest.
As the first event was being planned, there had been talk of turning the Kawartha Challenge into an annual event, but it fell victim to sky high expectations. The anticipated attendance was 50,000 people and the organizers had been ready for that many people to come. When the estimated attendance was 18,000 people, it came as a disappointment, though it was still a very large event for the community. Many of the organizers were coping with the excess food and material. Though it would did not become an annual event, many people would cherish the memory of the day that the balloons came to Fenelon Falls.
