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The Doomed Cleveland Balloonfest of '86

The Atlantic · 12.6M views · 2018-06-12 · 6:35

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Overview

A short Atlantic documentary on Cleveland's 1986 Balloonfest, when 1.5 million balloons were released at once and the attempt went badly wrong.

On Hacker News

Cited as a shorthand for a spectacularly misguided publicity stunt, or as a classic embarrassing Cleveland episode.

Discussed on HN; no positive recommendation is recorded in this export · HN mentions 2018–2021

Topics

Documentaries & storytellingBusiness & economics (other)
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balloonfestclevelandshort documentarypublicity stunt

What people said

vgeek · 2021-12 · Reference

The two best things denigrating Cleveland: Balloonfest ( [VIDEO] ) & your already mentioned Mike Polk Jr's tourism videos ( [VIDEO] & [LINK] ). If you can get past the dreary gray skies for 8 months of the year, Cleveland is cheap (even the nicer suburbs like Solon or Aurora) and has easy access to scenic western PA & upstate NY.

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Borrible · 2021-08 · Joke / meme

You will need a lot of pricey Helium-filled airships to replace an average container ship. I guess the airspace will look somewhat like the Cleveland Balloonfest '86... [VIDEO] [LINK]

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unixhero · 2018-12 · Joke / meme

Welp. Pretty much as dumb as the Cleveland Balloon event[0]. I think it is funny as hell, but incredibly dumb, yes. "Cleveland, WE DID IT! YEEEAH". [0] [VIDEO]

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Sources

Video by The Atlantic, played through YouTube.

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