I haven't been to a balloon fest in a hunnert years !
There used to be one here and it was pretty many balloons, but that appears to be a lot bigger. It was a lot of fun to see them take off and then see so many in the air at the same time. Back then I thought I would like to take a ride one day, but not now.
You know you are getting old when the thought of getting in all that traffic, parking far away in a field and pushing through large crowds to get anywhere.... makes you happy not to go ! Yep... that would be now.
Back in the day though, it was a lot of fun. You'd see so many people you knew or had known and hadn't seen in years.
I hear you. I hate crowds. Actually, I dislike a lot of the people in society :) That is the beauty of a vacation I guess - it gets you out of your routine. I'd say considering the wonderment of seeing that many balloons made dealing with that many humans worth it. Apparently back in the '70s this festival was more like you are describing. Smaller time, mostly local people, you knew a lot of people there. Now it has gotten its "international" status, so it is just jam packed with strangers.