A few days before I set off on my Norwegian adventure I unexpectedly took a balloon flight above Bristol, and I was not the only one up in the air. There were multiple balloons. It was an incredible experience and when we came into land I immediately thought of this month’s theme.

The Bristol International Balloon Fiesta is one of the largest in Europe; with mass launches happening twice a day over four days, at 6am and 6pm. The first fiesta was in 1979, and with the exception of the pandemic years has taken place every year ever since. The 2025 festival is considered by the organisers to be one of the best ever to have taken place, with more than 300 balloons flying over the long weekend.

So as you might expect my landing shots were not my favourites from my hour in the sky, but so many of those I simply couldn’t make square. However I don’t want you to miss out on them, and the rules allow me to share rectangles if there are also squares. So here’s a small selection and if you look carefully (you may need to click on gallery) you should spot the square box in the sky.

Did you spot the box, and if so did you notice anything unusual about it? It is called the Slick the Dragon as it has an actual dragon on it. You may have noticed some other unusual balloon shapes as there is also Fly Alien, Slither the Snake, Wallace and Gromit Rocket, Buster the Dog, Bella the Bulldog and Oggy the Dragon. Here are some clearer shots in case you missed them.

I am pondering whether we could organise a blogging event at next year’s festival, and perhaps book balloon flights together. The timing of flights means having to stay in the area, and the flights are not cheap unless you happen to know the pilot or balloon sponsor! However it is something to think about . . . . maybe. In the meantime everyone is welcome to join in the fun of Squares, whether you square daily, weekly, at weekends or just the once this month. The frequency of your squares is whatever suits you and your blog.

The tag is NovemberShadows, and using it as well as pingbacks & links in the comments helps me enormously when I am curating the galleries. The added bonus is that doing this also enables more of us to discover your squares. Now here’s that box again.

102 thoughts

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  15. This is amazing experience to fly with them. To be honest, probably I would stay on ground and watch them from there.. And yes, you did great photographs, it should be so excciting, I can feel this. By the way we have this kind of organization in Cappodocia too. I loved all of them dear BeckyB. For my daily Square/Shadow photograph, sorry I posted in first post, I will post here too, I hope not making a chaos, Thank you, Love, nia

    https://photographyofnia.com/2025/11/04/square-shadow-04-november-2025/

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    1. I can understand why so many prefer to stay on the ground, but once you have tried it once I think it becomes addictive. Moving with the wind so you don’t feel the wind

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  18. Absolutely brilliant! I love the balloons and have only ever been in a tethered one at Krakow, but I’ve been in Bristol when the event was on and it’s magical. If you did organise that event I’d be on the list. I have an empty diary for 2026 so far xx

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