Visiting worlds’ maddest firework event
It was during my first visit in Myanmar in 2012 that I heard of the Myanmar fire balloon festival. I had just missed it, but heard from a fellow traveler how spectacular and dangerous this event was. This year I was lucky enough to be in the country at the time of the event. Getting accommodation nearby was just impossible, so I settled myself at Nyaung Shwe at Inle Lake at the fantastic Ostello Bello hostel who organized transport each to the festival.
I visited the festival 4 out of 7 days and am glad I made it out unscathed. I’ve visited quite a few events and festivals in my time, but there really is nothing like this event. The friendly vibe and excitement during the preparing of the balloons is unique in itself. And when the balloons go up, the crowd cheers and dances. When the fireworks go off, it is just fantastic. You’ve never seen fireworks like it, that just continue to go on forever in the sky. They are said to hold up to 20.000 fireworks, crazy!
About the Myanmar fire balloon festival
Celebrating the end of the rainy season, locals from all over the country in Myanmar create hot air balloons with candles or fireworks to send into the skies in Taunggyi. Or at least, they’re supposed to. Things don’t always go well. Each year people get hurt and even die due to incidents. Without any proper security and things created by non-professionals, it has earned the reputation of ‘Worlds craziest and most dangerous firework event’.
I spend 4 nights here capturing footage for this movie and was lucky to make it out without any injuries, but got pretty close. The burn marks in jacket can testify to that. Nothing went terribly wrong when I was around, but things did go bad at other moments. Like the complete firework installation falling into the crowd and exploding on the ground. Pretty crazy. But a seriously amazing event to attend, with the friendliness of the locals being one of the highlights.
The event is held each year in October or November in Taunggyi, near popular Inle Lake. It’s free at attend and attracts tens of thousands of people each day. The last day is during the full moon and is the biggest day, but the only big thing is the crowd. I highly suggest to avoid the last 2 days because of the big crowds, the days before it’s much more quiet and enjoyable.
Beware
Beware of the dangers though if you’re planning on visiting it. It is best to stay far away from the firework balloons if you don’t want to take any risks. As you can see in my video here below, I took my chances and got away with it. There was one time when the fireworks started going off about 10 meters above the crowd, with thousands of them shooting in all directions. A pretty crazy situation.
Enjoy the movie! Don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel 😉 Thanks!
Hi, we are Martien Janssen and Jen Yap! I am a Dutch Travel Photographer & Filmmaker, specialising in Landscape, Aerial, Night Sky and Time Lapse Photography. Jen is a doctor from the Philippines who does most writing here. Follow us as we travel create cool photos & videos!
Wow. That is absolutely in-cre-di-ble. I’m so bummed that I’ll be in Myanmar in a few weeks, so I’ve just missed it! Never heard of it before. But still – THANKS for documenting this, via your YouTube video I have enjoyed it too! And I’ll just have to make sure next time I go to Myanmar I’m in time to see this.
Wow! Your photos and videos are amazing. This looks like such a cool event. 😀
Thanks Daniel, it was a great event for sure. Crazy, dangerous, but very cool 🙂
Wow this looks so awesome! I definitely want to check this out!
Hahaha, right on. Worth checking out for sure and good a reason to visit the fantastic Myanmar!
Did not know about the Myanmar Fire Balloon Festival. It does look scary but spectacular at the same time! Burn marks on the jacket.. that’s too close. But the fact you spent four nights capturing this movie footage makes is worth exploring and would love to plan a trip to Myanmar around the time this happens.
The things I do for footage.. Going around Bagan at night for my timelapse project, with snakes around, crawling underneath our legs, was quite a crazy thing as well! More about that when the project is done.
Hope you make it to Bagan, festival or not. It’s a great travel experience despite all controversy at this time. The local people aren’t to blame and are such nice people that love to welcome you and deserve the support.
What an amazing event! I’ve never heard about it. Those balloons are beautiful. It’s just sad that people get hurt in the process. Thanks for taking the risk to bring us these beautiful footage. Happy travels!
It is indeed, part of the risk or sacrifice for them, it seems. Strange but true. Glad you enjoyed it 🙂
This looks like such an awesome event, and you’ve captured it so beautifully! We often try to coincide our travels with local festivals, so will need to keep this in mind for when we plan a trip to Myanmar.
Thanks Alex. If you ever have the chance, sure do attend it, if only for a day
I’ve never heard of this festival before. You’re brave! Although it sounds cool, I don’t know how much fun I’d have if I was worried about falling fireworks!
Brave or stupid, sometimes I just don’t know! But it’s sure fun to have the footage 🙂
It must have been really dangerous to capture the highlights of this festival. I am glad you were able to capture it so beautifully. I will surely love to attend the fire balloon festival whenever I have a trip to Myanmar.
The footage was worth it, but yeah wasn’t too safe at all and was rather uncomfortable at times. Sometimes you gotta take some (calculated) risk to get certain shots though..
It is really dangerous event, yes. I am not a fan of such messy events. But I have to confess that this event is interesting. Just have to look it from far away. 🙂
True for sure! Great fun, but easily turn into a nightmare..
Hi Martien, greating from four Swiss friend. Happy you go out of this 2 more days alive. Great work by the way. Chears from Yangon. Jean-Pierre
Thanks Jean Pierre!
Jesus that looks insane. I think when I go I’ll try the first few days and see how it goes from there. Thanks!
Hahaha, good idea 😉
Wow, this looks amazing – and dangerous, indeed. We are so cautious about everything here in Europe – I remember all this craziness around me when I used to live in Central America – and still, very few things went wrong.
Anyway, this event looks so mesmerizing and you’ve captured it so well!
Thank you so much Renata
Myanmar is indeed a beautiful place. But the photos from this fire balloon festival totally captivated me. Surely, you had a great time inspite of the dangers involved during festival.
Thanks Supriya, yes I did, sure was exciting 🙂
Wow!Amazing event though it looks bit dangerous…But I have never seen before such a crazy balloon festival. Thanks a lot to you that you captured those moments & shared here.
Happy to hear you enjoyed it, thanks 🙂
Hi Martien,
Wish you a great photographic year.
Your Swiss friend from Bagan and Taunggyi
Thank you so much, good to hear from you Jean-Pierre! Happy shooting for 2019 yourself!