Ocean City’s Hot Air Balloon Festival, which was scheduled to take place August 25-27, has not been cancelled. But it has been relocated.
The event will now take place back to its roots at Triple Creek Winery in Cordova, Maryland. “The event has been held here for the last 7 years,” states owner Alex Spies. “We tried to help accommodate all of the balloons that had already made plans to come to the eastern shore already.” It also gave companies a chance to still come and show off their incredible hot air balloons. Balloons will be traveling from all over the country including New York, Ohio, Florida, and North Carolina just to name a few. Cordova is located in Easton, Maryland, about an hour and a half away from Ocean City, MD.
Traffic and safety concerns brought up by the Maryland State Police and county officials were one of the many reasons that the county has decided to relocate the much-anticipated event. In addition to the traffic, Worcester County wanted a year to plan the extravagant event, which was going to be held in fields and area behind the Ocean City Outlets.
Spies tells us that there will be a refund policy posted soon for those who bought tickets specifically for the Ocean City area. However if patrons bought tickets and would still like to attend the event in Cordova, their Ocean City tickets will of course be honored.
The new/ previous event location, Triple Creek Winery, began as a vineyard 30 years ago. It was only 10 years ago that the winery was added. If you’re planning to attend check out their Chesapeake Reserve a delightful red blend and their popular chardonnays and pinot grigios.
Moving the location back to where it began made sense to some. It gave Ocean City the time that it needed to properly prepare and plan for an event of this magnitude. For others, it will be something else to anticipate for the 2024 summer season. Meetings will be held on Tuesday August 15, 2023 to discuss the plans to move forward with the balloon festival next summer. For more information on the event and tickets, visit https://ocballoonfest.com/.
traffic on 404 will be a nightmare.
I do not get the reason to move it to start with. Ocean City has events all yeat long and this is one that people who live in the middle of the Eastern Shore can enjoy and the businesses in Caroline, Talbot and Queen Anne counties can benefit from.