The Porch Visits Preparations For Firelake Fireflight Balloon Festival

With the annual Firelake Fireflight Balloon Festival returning to Shawnee this weekend, organizers are preparing for dozens of hot air balloons to take flight.

Every year, the festival prompts Oklahomans to look upward and gaze at the hot air balloons drifting in the skies over Shawnee.

Joel Sturdevant, who is set to pilot one of the many balloons taking part in the festival, said people often underestimate their size.

"There's 90,000 cubic feet of air inside this balloon," Sturdevant said. "So what is 90,000 cubic feet of air? Most people don't know, but I'm going to give you a little bit of analogy. If you think of a basketball, it's about a foot in diameter, so it's almost a cubic foot, so we could put over 90,000 basketballs inside of this balloon right now when it's fully inflated."

Sturdevant's RE/MAX balloon in particular stands 75 feet tall and 55 feet wide, which will make it hard to miss when it is flying over Shawnee.

"This is what I've done for the last 45 year, this is my life and I love to do this because I like to share with people like you and all the other people that are going to come out," Sturdevant said. "I get the experience to get to give them the experience that I get to do every day. This is my job, this is my office right here. So who wouldn't want this job?"

For more information on the Firelake Fireflight Balloon Festival, click here.