Popular NJ summer festival cancelled once again for next year

🎈 A decades old family-fun NJ festival is cancelled for 2025

🎈 It will be the second year in a row it's axed

🎈 Organizers blame spiraling costs for the cancellation

Hate to burst your balloon, but The New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning will not happen in 2025, according to a message on the festival’s website. This marks the second year in a row the popular festival has been cancelled.

“Many issues still loom large over the industry, such as spiraling costs (including concert talent, an area where a small independent producer can no longer successfully complete), logistical challenges, not to mention, an increasingly unpredictable Mother Nature,” according to the website message.

Striving to deliver the best experience possible has always been a top priority, said Festival Executive Producer Howard Freeman, in a message posted on the festival's website.

“After much consideration and evaluation, we have decided that it’s best to take another year to re-evaluate, rejuvenate, and hopefully re-emerge bigger and better than ever. Therefore, we will not be presenting our three-day celebration in 2025,” Freeman said.

He expressed tremendous gratitude to the New Jersey Lottery, who not only signed on as the Festival of Ballooning’s title sponsor just as COVID-19 hit in 2020, but has also continued to support the festival today.

“Our goal is to preserve all the aspects of the NJLFOB that have always made it so special while continuing to support our local community and evolving to meet the future,” Freeman concluded.

In 2023, The New Jersey Lottery Festival of Ballooning celebrated 40 years of bringing the magic of hot air ballooning to millions, according to the website. The event grew into the country's largest summertime hot air balloon and music festival over the past four decades.

It also became a favorite family-fun attraction in the Garden State, traditionally held at Solberg Airport in Readington.

Stay tuned to the website for more updates.

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