Aug 17, 2000
Every August 15th/16th, the folks in Betanzos have a 2-day fiesta. A high point is at midnight on the 16th, when they launch "El Globo", a hot air balloon like the one shown above. They've been doing this every year since 1875.

Per tradition, the 46-foot balloon is made of plain brown wrapping paper held together with flour paste. It's fueled by burning oil, which is still burning when it's launched. They claim there's enough fuel to keep it aloft for 6-7 hours. One year, the balloon traveled over a 100 miles before coming back to Earth. (This year it flew for well over an hour and traveled about 20 miles.)

I've never attended a launching but do watch them on TV. Betanzos is congested enough with just a few thousand people on a normal summer day. On August 16th the place is absolutely mobbed. This year, over 60,000 people were on hand for the launch.