PLANS have been revealed to bring back Worcester Balloon Festival bigger and better for its second year.

Monster Truck Mayhem has been added to the festival as the balloon festival reinvents itself for 2024. 

Having recently submitted a proposal to change its name to Worcester Balloon Festival and Monster Mayhem along with increasing the capacity to 14,999 people.

Organiser Show Time Events is looking forward to bringing more to this year's festival at Worcester Racecourse including adding an extra day. 

This year, the event will run for three days, starting on Friday, June 21 and ending on Sunday, June 23.

Worcester News:

Organiser David Bailey said: "The Monster Mayhem event is absolutely great fun to see, we've got a lot more going on this year, which is why we felt the need to extend it one more day."

"We've got parachutes from Jump Dogs coming on the Saturday and more surprises on the way which will hopefully get confirmed in the coming months."

Also at this year's festival will be stunt shows, a Viking village for people to look around and monster truck rides.

People can also enjoy a craft marquee, trade stalls, a funfair and a licensed bar as well as festival food.

The monster truck show includes Slingshot and Swampfiend vehicles with organisers hoping to beat last year's attendance figures of 35,000 people across the two days. 

There will be live arena entertainment, including: 

  • Bold Dog FMX

  • Paws for Thought

  • Stuntworld International

  • Jump Dogs Parachute Team

  • Circus Workshop

Plans for the balloon festival itself remain consistent with last year's event seeing a total of 58 balloons setting off across the two days of the event. 

Ticket prices range from £4.50 for children under 16, £6.50 for an adult and £20.00 for a family consisting of two children and two adults. 

Last year, Worcester Balloon Festival was set to take place in May but organisers were forced to postpone because of bad weather.

When it eventually took place in June, windy weather once again scuppered some plans but the event ended with a triumphant flight of hot air balloons across the city.

Thousands were in attendance and the event was deemed a success.

The following morning after the balloon festival Peter Gregory, age 26 and from the Cotswolds, died after his balloon fell from the sky and crashed in Ombersley.

The Air Accidents Investigations Branch is still looking into the circumstances surrounding the crash.