Organizers prep for Sikeston Hot Air Balloon Festival

SIKESTON, Mo. (KBSI) – You’re gonna have an inflex of people here tourists who have a reason to come to Sikeston, so it’s a big deal to our community and everyone in it.”

Taylor Deere is the Director for Membership and Programming at the Sikeston Regional Chamber. She says they cannot wait to see people at their second annual event in Sikeston and thinks it will be a bigger hit than last year.

“This is just our second year so last year was a huge learning experience so we knew what we wanted to work on and we’ve been really fortunate to be able to put some of those new things in place,” said Deere.

Sikeston Regional Chamber member Katie Merideth talks about all of the safety protocols they are implementing for this event and how people can come prepared.

“We are encouraging people to dress for the weather, to bring chairs that way you’re not standing in the heat and we welcome to people to bring blankets so that they can kind of lounge maybe find one of the shade trees out here,” said Merideth. “The food trucks and the vendors will probably have tent set up so be able to find shade back there. We have Scott County sheriffs department that’s gonna be with us here on scene. They will have a cooling center for those that may get overheated.”

Merideth says they have gone far and beyond to make sure visitors have a fun and safe time.

“We’ve had several meetings with our local DPS, the highway department as I mentioned EMS so we have lots of professional services. That’ll be out here. I think they’re gonna have two ambulances out here on site. They’ll be the firetrucks back there by the petroleum that are working with the balloon cruise so we really got great support from our local agencies that are better. The professionals in that area.”

The second annual Hot Air Balloon festival will begin this Friday June 21 at 4 p.m.