Keila - hot-air baloon capital of Estonia

Keila Municipality has been organizing hot-air balloon competitions for years. In Estonia, hot-air balloons and Keila have become synonyms. Also last summer, a hot-air balloon competition - Olympus CUP 2005 - took place at Rakvere and Keila.

"Although organizing such competitions is not local governments' task, we still want to invite hot-air balloons to Keila. Furthermore, we want to offer this magnificent show also to people from other areas in Estonia" - says Ago Kokser, Mayor of Keila. "The team that organizes the competitions in their free time has done such a good work that the competition has become popular among the pilots from our neighbouring countries. There are more people wishing to participate than we can receive. Keila has become the "importer" of hot-air balloons and as such, we wish to promote them" - he adds.

At present, there are only a few balloons in Estonia. The best pilot in Estonia - Sergei Usanov - who lives at Keila, admits that his hometown is the most hot-air balloon friendly town in Estonia.

Hot-air balloons came to Keila in the middle of 1990, when we learned that our twinning towns - Birstonas in Lithuania and Sigulda in Latvia - were the centres for hot-air-ballooning of their countries. Every year, on an important occasion, Keila invited Lithuanian pilots to fly over Keila. In 2003, the organizers decided to offer the wonderful show also to other towns. The lucky number one was the town of Viljandi, situated in central Estonia. The first part of the competition was held there.

The first part of the competition in the summer 2005 was held at Rakvere. The competition began with a grand night show and was received by the audience as never before. The competition, which lasted from 17 to 21 August, was also blessed with superb weather. The conditions were perfect for ballooning. All the scheduled flights took place, which is extraordinary in hot-air balloon competitions. There were 14 teams from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Sweden.