At the Village of Lisle Board Meeting on Monday, October 18, 2011, The Lisle Eyes to the Skies Balloon Festival Committee presented $50,000 in proceeds to the festival’s affiliate members – Lisle Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis International, Lisle Education Foundation, Partners for Parks and Lisle Chamber of Commerce. The 501 (c) 3 organization committee members have distributed $140,000 over the last three years.
The affiliate members gathered over 300 volunteers and spent countless hours and tireless effort resulting in the 2011 Eyes to the Skies being a huge success. Past Eyes to the Skies Chairman Roger Leone says, “Lisle Eyes to the Skies Festival is the largest fundraiser for the Lisle service organizations within the community.” Next summer, The Eyes to the Skies Festival will to soar to new heights as they celebrate their 30th Anniversary June 29-July 1, 2012.

Source: Trib Local – Lisle

Chicago’s ABC7 News made it out for the balloon launch this morning. Watch their report as well as Roger Leone (Eyes to the Skies Festival Chairman of the Board). Click the filmstrip below to watch the video.

Winds are very calm. Looks pretty calm but we should know in about 15 minutes. please look at out Twitter feed in the right column of the website for all future updates.

UPDATE: 6:15 launch. EYES TO THE SKIES LISLE!!!!!

UPDATE: the balloon launch was a huge success. @brianstoiber landed at Clow International Airport in Naperville. @Drew3927 landed about 1 mile southeast of the airport. The mass launch was beautiful from the sky. Pictures will be posted to out Flickr account most likely tomorrow or Tuesday.

We will be unable to launch the balloons tonight. The wind is going in the wrong direction and the wind is at 14 knots (about 8 too fast).

We will still glow tonight and do tethered rides. $20 for adults and $15 for children.

The Chicago Tribune printed in today’s paper that the Eyes to the Skies Festival is running through the 4th. The Festival will only be running through the 3rd.

There will be a parade in Lisle on Main St. At 11am.

Award winning investigative reporter Dave Savini of CBS-2 news joins in on the fun and food today. Savini has done numerous reports impacting Lisle and the surrounding suburbs. Dave is also an avid cook and tonight he will be at one Lisle’s newest restaurants food tents. Torch is serving up pasta and meatballs on a stick, manicotti, chicken vodka pasta and cookies.

Unfortunately, we were not able to have a balloon launch this morning. The winds were just a little too high for safety concerns. We were able to have about 10 of the balloons inflate and give the crowd a nice show.

Tethered rides were also available and will be again tonight. $20 for adults and $15 for children.

The Eyes to the Skies Festival grounds are very accessible. However a larger wheelchairs should not enter from the east gate. There likely won’t be room on the bridge. There handicap parking is right by the west gate. The grounds are also relatively flat and there are roads, parking lots & paths through most of the festival. To get close to the balloon field you need to go on the grass. But the balloons are so big you don’t need to be close to see them.

In front of the main stage there are paths and a handicap area for sitting. The food court is flat & completely on pavement. The craft fair is on pavement as is also the carnival and commercial vendors. Evivva has a parking lot entrance but is usually crowded so that might be of some difficulty. The only areas completely in the grass are the Children’s Area and the Lumberjack Show.

The only other issue we cannot control is how many people will be attending. Obviously the more people, the harder it will be for individuals to get around.

If there is anything we can do to help out, please let us know.

Wednesday is wristband day, $20.00. 5:00pm -11:00pm, all you can ride.

The Eyes to the Skies Festival has always been a community event that has brought people from across the nation. One of the things that has made this festival stand apart from others is that it is run soely by volunteers and that all proceeds go directly to non-profit organizations (501c3). At a time when neighboring festivals including the Taste of Chicago (not to mention Festivals throughout the country) are cutting back if not canceling due to funding issues, The Eyes to the Skies Festival has remained strong and will continue to provide three great days and nights of entertainment and fireworks.

The Lisle Eyes to the Skies Festival is first and foremost a balloon Festival. Although in the past we have always attempted to operate on the 4th of July, doing so is very expensive due to the costs related to staffing for security, police and fire protection, and other expenses which are higher when operating on a holiday such as the 4th of July. In addition, the 4th this year is on a Monday, which would require the Festival to extend for a 4th day, or to run Saturday to Monday and ignore what is usually our best day in Friday. We have found our success in operating for three-days, Friday to Sunday, and it is very hard to spread the pre-festival income over a 4th day without having to rely too heavily on gate revenue.

Because of these factors, the Board of Directors decided to keep the Festival a three-day event this year, and not have the Festival operate on the 4th of July. The Festival Committee continues to support the 4th of July Holiday as a major sponsor of the parade in Lisle on the 4th, and the grand fireworks show will be on the 3rd to patriotic music (much like it once was for the Taste of Chicago) with Lisle Residents admitted free before 4:00 PM and veterans admitted free all day. Although nothing has been decided yet for the 2012 Festival, the Board will have to decide which days it makes the most economical sense for our Festival to operate in future years. We want the Festival to endure and continue to be part of the Community for many years to come (this is our 29th year), and in order to do that we need to be prudent and responsible managers of the Festival. Nothing would have given us more joy then to present a four-day Festival ending on the 4th, but that just was not in the cards this year for the reasons previously mentioned.

Thank you for your continued support, and we hope to see you at the Festival this July 1st through 3rd, and hopefully there for the grand fireworks finale on the 3rd.