London hot air balloon festival 2025: Will the annual hot air balloon regatta take place this weekend?

It’s that time of year when London hosts a fleet of colourful hot air balloons in its skies for the Lord Mayor’s annual regatta festival - but will it actually take place this weekend like planned?

Sadly not, according to the website, the hot air balloon regatta has been stood down due to the weather.

If you’ve never seen the mesmerising spectacle, each year the Lord Mayor’s Hot Balloon Regatta festival sees up to 50 vibrant hot-air balloons float above across the city.

They typically float over landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament, the Tower of London and Tower Bridge during the event.

The event aims to raise awareness and funds for the Lord Mayor’s Appeal, which aims to create a better city for all by making it more inclusive, healthy, skilled, and fair.

While the Regatta typically takes place in the spring or early summer in London and it is wholly weather dependent meaning the date varies every year.

For the 2025 Regatta festival three standby dates have been put forward the first of which is this Sunday, May 11.

The other two proposed dates are July 20 and July 27. If the weather is not suitable for this weekend the event will be postponed to take place on the next available date.

Aerial marketing company Exclusive Ballooning, who have helped run the event since 2015, typically confirm whether or not the flight will proceed as planned on their website and social media the Friday before the event.

Therefore London locals and visitors hoping to watch will have to wait until tomorrow (May 9) to see if the event will go ahead as planned.

Due to weather conditions the 2022, 2023 and 2024 editions were stood down and not able to proceed.

According to the Met Office, Sunday is expected to have wind gusts of up to 30mph by the early afternoon.

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