Steampunk Sea

05/14/2026

It’s official! Steampunk Sea will be heading to its first Fiesta in October. Who plans to come see us out there? 🎉🐢🐬

05/12/2026

First event of our season is approaching! 🐢🐬

Meet the pilot: Kevin Heinzmann - Steampunk Sea

When you are not flying, what do you enjoy doing?

I do a lot of reading.

Why did you become a pilot?

I crewed for over 20 years. We finally decided to get our own balloon so we could do even more ballooning.

What do you find is the most challenging about flying a hot air balloon?

Finding landing spots that acceptable to everyone! Some great spots get missed because the wind won't cooperate. Some get passed by because the crew isn't happy with them. Some get flow over because the owner/occupant wouldn't be happy if we landed there.

Short description of something interesting that ballooning has allowed you to do?

We get to share the magic of ballooning with people of all ages. To see all the smiles when people get in the basket for pictures at a glow, is a great thing. It's also wonderful to be able to hear people talk about how different things looks on the ground when viewed from the air. It's a great feeling to be able to share a hobby we love with people who want to hear about it.

What do you most want the public to know/understand about hot air balloons and flying them?

Pilots want to fly, but we want to fly safely. We don't have control over the weather, and weather forecast are always changing as well as not being 100% accurate. People wonder why we don't fly when they don't see anything wrong with the weather. We might be looking at sources they don't look at, or we might be concern about what might change before we land. If we are going to error, we try to error on the side of safety. Our balloon "Steampunk Sea" was custom built for our family. There are eight animals on the balloon. Three of those are sewn on the outside. The others are all sew on the inside of the envelope. They are visible during the day if you look closely. If you really want to see them in their full glory, you need to catch them when the balloon is glowing after dark. We often challenge people to see if they can find all eight.

Generously Sponsored by: Dash Foundation

05/10/2026

We hope all of the mothers out there have great day today! Special shout to our own “Safety Mom” that takes care of us and our crew! 🐢🐬

05/05/2026

New event for us this year as our first event of the year. We’ve heard lots of great things about this event, and we are excited to finally check it out for ourselves! 🐢🥳

30 days until the sky fills up.

Evening launches. Night glow.
B-I-G Above & Beyond announcements coming!

Start making your plans… this one is going to be special!

05/04/2026

😎🐢🐬

05/01/2026

We are going to check out Fairview Park for our Friday evening launch. We will meet at 5:45 pm in the former pool area on the NE side. Flight should take us to the SE towards Walnut Hill area. I’ll send out update/verification by noon Friday. Let us know if you plan to crew. 🐢🐬😎

04/30/2026

Weather is looking like it might be flyable Friday evening. Stay tuned for further details. 🐢🐬

04/15/2026

FYI

It’s official, Centralia Balloon Fest will be at FAIRVIEW PARK on August 21, 22, & 23, 2026 🥳

We’ve heard your concerns about the move and we want to address each one to ensure that it is a positive experience for the community and attendees:

- The size of Fairview Park is very similar to the area we used at Foundation Park.
- No vehicles of any kind will be allowed into Fairview Park. (Golf carts, cars, etc.)
- Official Balloon Fest parking will be Fairview Park Plaza, thank you to Ipanema Management.
- A portion of Broadway will be closed from vehicle traffic to allow safe pedestrian crossing from Fairview Park Plaza into Fairview Park.
- No alcohol will be allowed in the park at anytime during Balloon Fest.
- Crossing guards will be in place at high-traffic areas to help ESDA.
- Security guards will be staffed at Fairview Park during Balloon Fest to help Centralia Police, though this is no change from previous years.
- ESDA will provide overnight security, which is also the same in previous years.
- Our Grounds Committee will pick up trash at the end of the event to keep Centralia beautiful.

Our goal is to have the same number of craft vendors, food vendors, and hot air balloons. Like many years prior, we plan to have half of the hot air balloons glow on Friday and the other half glow on Saturday. For the evening flights, we plan to launch some balloons from Fairview Park and the others in surrounding areas to fly over the park. As always, balloon events are weather permitting.

Even if all 35 hot air balloons could fit in Fairview Park, we do not plan to have all of them take off from the park for traffic and safety reasons.

We met with the Centralia Foundation, owners of Foundation Park. We came to an agreement that there are electric issues, some of which may be corrected in a timely manner. However, there are other concerns that need attention on our end, but these things take time to plan, budget, and implement. We are continuing to work with them to see if it may become feasible for Balloon Fest to return to Foundation Park in the future.

We want to thank the City of Centralia for being so welcoming of our event and doing everything in their power to ensure Balloon Fest stays in Centralia. With such short notice, the city has done everything in their power to make sure the transition to Fairview Park is as smooth as possible. We have been in touch with Centralia Police, Fire, ESDA, and Public Works to plan a safe Balloon Fest and we will continue to work very closely with them.

Thank you to our Chamber Board for navigating this difficult situation with us, and thank you to Steering Committee for putting the interest of the event first to make it as great as possible!

We look forward to Centralia Balloon Fest 2026 at Fairview Park Centralia! Last but not least, it will be FREE!

As always, more details will be available as we keep pushing and planning. Stay tuned, keep following along, and thank you to everyone that trusts us with southern Illinois’ biggest hot air balloon event 😎

03/29/2026

The winds were a bit on the sporty side this evening. We’ll be honest…the inflation was just plan ugly. The flight was beautiful with clear, sunny skies . We got in enough touch and go landing to stay current. Finished with a rip out landing with a 30 foot drag. Thanks to the crew who came out to enjoy the adventure with us! 🌬️🐢🐬

03/28/2026

Look to the sky, NW of Centralia! Steampunk Sea is cruising out enjoying a beautiful Spring evening!

03/28/2026

🎉 Weather looks like it is going to cooperate for a flight this afternoon! We’ll meet Castle Ridge - Stonewater - III at 5:00 pm. (They are having their annual Murder Mystery Dinner Fundraiser tonight if you want to stick around for that.) Winds look like they should take us to the NW. let us know if you plan on coming out to crew! 🐢🐬🍀