Lisle's Eyes to the Skies gets early start

Guy Gauthier has been flying hot-air balloons at events across the nation for more than 30 years, but he still considers Lisle's Eyes to the Skies Festival, where he serves as balloonmiester, one of his favorites.

"I find the 10- to 20-balloon, little events are much more personable," he said. "The crowd gets more involved with the balloons rather than standing behind the fence looking."

And the public certainly will have an opportunity to get involved this year with new tethered rides, during which a balloon will lift riders about 70 or 80 feet in the air.

But even for those not daring enough to go up, up and away, organizers guarantee the festival, which runs July 2-4 at Community Park in Lisle, will not disappoint.

"There are so many sights and sounds," festival Chairman Roger Leone said. "You could spend eight to 10 hours out there and never see the same thing twice."

Besides the towering hot-air balloons, Eyes to the Skies offers a little something for people of all ages, including a five-day carnival opening today, dozens of food vendors, more than 25 bands and three nights of fireworks.

Beatles cover band American English and the son of Willie Nelson, Lukas Nelson, with his band Promise of the Real, are two musical highlights. A giant craft fair with more than 60 vendors also will be featured, along with a sprawling children's area that will contain arts and crafts, games and races.

Roughly 200,000 people attend the fest each year and this year should be no different, especially with entrance prices reduced to $5 in response to the bad economy.

"It's a really good value," Leone said. "If a family wants to spend good, quality time together for the dollar value, I don't think it can be beat anywhere."

As far as the hot-air balloons, Gauthier said he expects about 15 to 20 to come out, including Serena's Song, the nation's first wheelchair-accessible balloon that offers free rides to the disabled.

He said a lot of balloonists like to come to the event because the "rolling hills and easy terrain" in the Chicago area makes it a great place to fly in with lots of safe spots to land.

The pilots will fly their balloons twice on July 2, 3 and 4, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. At 8:30 p.m. on the same nights there will be a balloon glow, when lights are placed in all the balloons while they remain on the ground.

Naperville resident Kelly Neill is one of the pilots taking part in the festival. He began attending Eyes to the Skies when he was a kid with his father, who is also an Eyes to the Skies balloonist and who inspired him to start flying.

Over the years Neill has traveled the world, stopping everywhere from Switzerland to England with his penguin balloon, Pengwind.

"Instead of just being a tourist the locals actually come up to you and you're kind of like the entertainment," he said. "It's a really good chance to see other countries and other states and get to meet the people."

Yet, he recently began coming back to Lisle because it is close to home and "has a great vibe."

"It's got a big crowd that comes out, it has a lot to do and it's just fun to be part of," he said. "There are some events that really have a long history and the town kind of identifies with it and I think Lisle still has that. It's a nice summer festival."

In the end, the festival is nice for the entire community, too. Last year, organizers collected more than $40,000 in profits over the five days and donated the money to the festival's affiliates, including the Lions Club, the Rotary Club and the Lisle Kiwanis.

"We expect to do better this year," Leone said. "If God provides us with good weather we could probably surpass (last year's donation) by perhaps 20 percent or 25 percent."

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<ul class="links">

<li><a href="/story/story/?id=390814">Shriners always a highlight in Lisle's July Fourth parade<span class="date">[06/30/10]</span></a></li>

<li><a href="/story/?id=390552">Lisle's Eyes to the Skies community festival<span class="date">[06/30/10]</span></a></li>

<li><a href="/story/?id=390550">Serena's Song brings 'piece of magic' to fest <span class="date">[06/30/10]</span></a></li>

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