Michael Strong, Arts & Living Editor
Kennesaw State University’s Sports and Recreation Park held its second annual Owl-O-Ween Hot Air Balloon Festival this weekend. Approaching the stadium, the colossal balloons could be seen towering over all corners of the field. Unlike last year’s festival, the balloons were spread out evenly across the entire park, making great use of the wealth of space available. After the surprisingly high attendance of last year’s event, the festival was expanded to two nights. The attendance surely doubled this year, as each night had similar turnout to the one night event of last year.
Bigger and better describes every aspect of Owl-O-Ween this year. Everything from the balloons, to the vendors to the performances was expanded for the two-night festival. Where last year’s event had a single alley dedicated to vendors, this year the unique goods could be found practically everywhere throughout the stadium. Vendors lined up around the field so that attendees could ogle their goods as they strolled underneath the immense balloons above.
Numerous skilled, circus-like performances were also spread throughout the stadium for visitors of all ages to revel in. Fans of perilous fire acts had a lot to enjoy through the entirety of the festival. Fire eating, fire twirling and unsettling piercings were the stars of the show, as attendees could make their way from one end of the stadium to the other and see a new daring act everywhere they went. A particular standout was a group calling themselves “the world’s most disgusting couple.” This husband and wife pair shocked their crowd by lifting bricks and cinderblocks with hooks attached to such spine tingling places as their tongues and eyelids.
The Owl-O-Ween will only continue to grow in the coming years. Soon enough, the KSU stadium won’t be able to hold the many balloons that continue to come to the school. The festival is quickly becoming a superb tradition for KSU.
