London hot air balloon festival 2025: Lord Mayor's hot air balloon regatta 'stood down due to strong winds'

This year’s London hot air balloon festival which was due to take place this weekend has been stood down due to strong winds.

Three standby dates were put forward for the 2025 Lord Mayor’s Hot Balloon Regatta festival, the first of which is this Sunday, May 11.The other two proposed dates are later this summer on July 20 and July 27.

Aerial marketing company Exclusive Ballooning, who have helped run the event since 2015 confirmed the news in a statement on their website on Thursday (May 8) evening.

The update began: We are standing down The Lord Mayor's Hot Air Balloon Regatta flight for Sunday 11th May. Wind speeds are too quick for flying, however this is also due to the wind direction.

“Forecasts show an easterly wind, which would take all of the hot air balloons directly towards Heathrow airport runway. We now roll to our next standby date of Sunday 20th July.”

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.

However 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.

If you want more great content like this, follow us on social media! We’re on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn. Alternatively you can join our London foodies group by clicking here.

Get the day’s biggest headlines, straight to your inbox, with London World’s free email newsletters.