Balloonists are looking forward to Worcester’s first hot air balloon festival.

Worcester Balloon Festival takes place this Friday and Saturday (June 23 and 24) and promises plenty of entertainment across two days at the racecourse.

But the highlight is sure to be the sight of dozens of balloons taking off from Pitchcroft - something that, weather permitting, will happen several times over the weekend.

Matt Rate runs Vista Balloon Flights, a company that will be taking members of the public on flights on the day.

READ MORE: Worcester Balloon Festival announces late schedule changes

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said.

“The original date in May was postponed because of the weather - we were all ready to come down but didn’t have a boat to negotiate the racecourse.

“It should be a good weekend.

“If people want to see the balloons taking off then the racecourse is the place to be.

“But the beauty of hot air balloons is that they can be seen for miles, so from any high vantage point you’ll be able to get good pictures of us.”

How do hot air balloons steer?

One of the questions being asked ahead of the festival is ‘how do hot air balloons steer?’ - so we asked Matt.

“In short, they don’t steer - they drift along with the wind,” he said.

“We can’t really control where we are actually going to end up, although the winds at different altitudes will take us in different directions.”

The weather will also dictate how far from the racecourse the balloons will travel on the day.

“If there’s a 5mph wind on the day, we’ll travel five miles,” said Matt. “If it’s faster then we’ll go further. We usually fly for between 30 minutes and an hour.

“After that, we’ll find a safe place to land - usually a field with no livestock in it, then get permission from the farmer to recover the balloon with a car, pack it away and drive back.”

How high do hot air balloons fly?

Matt says the majority of Vista’s flights are at an altitude of about 1,500 feet and rarely do the balloons need to go above 3,500 feet.