This week · Wed 28 Oct 2026
Saga International Balloon Fiesta 2026: 123 balloons over the Kase River, starting Friday
The competition starts on Friday 30 October and runs for five days on the Kase Riverbank in Saga City. The entry numbers, the free entry, the temporary station, and the one thing that decides everything at this fiesta: the wind.
The short answer: the 2026 Saga International Balloon Fiesta opens its competition on Friday 30 October and flies for five days, to Tuesday 3 November, a public holiday. The venue is the Kase Riverbank in Saga City, in Kyushu. The organisers list 123 balloons and teams entered, 25 of them from overseas. Entry to the grounds is free. And everything about a balloon fiesta comes with the same condition: flights happen only when the weather allows, and the call is made at a briefing shortly before each flight, not the night before.
The event, in numbers
| Division | Balloons | From overseas |
|---|---|---|
| Competition (the 39th Pacific Cup) | 72 | 15 |
| Fiesta division | 21 | 6 |
| Balloon Fantasia (special shapes) | 20 | 4 |
| Official balloons | 10 | None |
| Total | 123 | 25 |
The fiesta is organised by the Saga International Balloon Fiesta Organization, and the 2026 edition also carries the third round of the 2026 Hot Air Balloon Honda Grand Prix inside its competition programme. The full schedule, official practice and the awards ceremony included, runs from Wednesday 28 October to Wednesday 4 November; the five competition days in the middle are the days to aim at.
How a day at the fiesta works
Competition flights run twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Which kind of flight it will be is decided at a briefing held shortly before the start, around 6:30 in the morning and 14:30 in the afternoon: on a simultaneous liftoff flight, as many as 80 balloons leave the launch site together within about 30 minutes; on a fly-in flight, the balloons lift off from fields kilometres away and fly in towards a target on the grounds. You find out which one you are watching when the organisers do.
The shaped balloons of Balloon Fantasia are a ground show rather than a flight: they are inflated on the launch site in the morning, after the morning competition, and they are not inflated in the afternoon. If the weather is kind, visitors can go into the launch area and see them up close. The official balloons, which do not compete, generally fly before the competitions begin. Food and local produce fill the rest of the grounds, at the Umakamon Food Market and the regional product centre in the Rest Station area, so a grounded morning is not a wasted one.
The weather decides
Read this before you book a dawn start around a single morning. A flight needs three things: no rain, good visibility and calm winds. A clear, bright day can still be a no-fly day if the wind is too strong, and the decision is made at the briefing on the day, then announced at the grounds. The organisers' own advice, from their running record of past editions, is that the morning flights usually get their calm air and the afternoon flights are the ones the wind most often takes. Give yourself at least two mornings if the balloons are the reason for the trip.
There are no spectator rides in the competition balloons at the fiesta. What you are coming for is the sight of the launch field at first light, and it is enough.
Getting there, and where to stay
For the fiesta, a temporary station, JR Balloon Saga Station, opens at the main grounds on the Kase Riverside for the duration of the event, and the organisers urge visitors to come by public transport: the parking around the riverbank is limited, fills for the day on the weekend and the holiday, and the roads clog. Drivers use the temporary parking lots, with shuttle buses running from the lots outside the grounds; the temporary lot on the north side of the river carries a charge of 2,000 yen (about US$13) towards the upkeep of the area.
US dollar figure is approximate, converted at ¥158 to the dollar (October 2026).
Stay by Saga Station. The hotels and inns around the centre of Saga City, Saga Station above all, are the base the organisers themselves point to: from there it is a short JR ride to Balloon Saga Station, inside the fiesta grounds. Rooms with easy access go quickly during the fiesta, and the organisers' advice is blunt: book well in advance. At this point in the week that means book today, and take the early train in the morning.
The full listing, with dates and the official source, is our Saga International Balloon Fiesta page. Saga sits in Kyushu, where our Kyushu region page collects what else is on, and Fukuoka, the region's main arrival city, is covered on the hotels page.
Sources: Saga International Balloon Fiesta official outline for 2026 (organiser, competition dates, full schedule and entry table, last updated 8 September 2026) and the organisers' official FAQ (entry free, the temporary JR Balloon Saga Station, flight briefings and weather rules, the Fantasia inflation pattern, the parking charge and the Saga Station hotel advice). Checked 27 October 2026. Flight decisions are made on the day, at the grounds.
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