Dangerous fun in the skies over Niterói

Long exposure of a plane taking off into the night sky over Guanabara Bay with Niterói in the background.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you saw something so weird that you just couldn’t explain it? A few years ago I had such a moment when I was looking out over Guanabara Bay towards Rio’s near neighbour, Niterói. The night sky above the bay is often pretty busy – passenger jets taking off and landing at Santos Dumont airport, helicopters buzzing around, perhaps the odd fireworks display or some beams of light coming up from a concert somewhere. However, on this occasion I spotted something quite different.

As I gazed absent-mindedly out of the window I noticed a static light in the sky that seemed to be twinkling. “Strange” I thought to myself. I looked more carefully and the light stopped twinkling. At this point, if I was in a cartoon or children’s film, I probably would have rubbed my eyes, or looked accusingly at a half empty bottle of whisky, and then shaken my head as if to dismiss the matter. Instead I continued watching and saw that the twinkling returned. In fact this was more than just twinkling. There was a small central light and then lots of other coloured lights were flashing and appearing around it on either side.

Could it be a fireworks display? I didn’t think so – with conventional fireworks it’s usually very clear that they’re coming upwards, from the ground to the sky. These multicoloured flashes were appearing seemingly from nowhere and were moving sideways. I was stumped. Seeing as we’re friends I’ll admit that for a moment I considered the possibility that I was observing alien space craft. I called Mrs Eat Rio over to see if she knew what it was but she had no idea.

Baloeiro

The next day in the office I asked my colleagues and finally someone gave me a lead. I was told about something called Baloeiro (apparently this is the name of both the activity and the people who practice it). I must admit that although I’ve been asking around and Googling like crazy, I’m definitely no expert on this subject so if anyone can add detail or correct me then feel free to chip in.

Groups of Baloeiros construct massive balões (balloons) from paper, nylon or some other material. The balloons are unmanned and fuelled by some kind of burning material which provides the heat to take them up into the sky.

Pretty (dangerous).

Hot air balloons are impressive on their own, but the baloeiros don’t stop there – the balloons usually have some bright, colourful design and may be linked to enormous banners which are pulled up into the sky beneath the balloon. But the fun doesn’t stop there. Instead of lifting banners, some balloons, fogueteiros, lift long chains of structures holding fireworks. A lot of fireworks.

A single firework unit to be lifted by the balloon.

That’s a whole lot of fireworks going up.

They are fairly spectacular when released during the day:

And if you want to see what they look like when they’re released at night, take a look at this astounding clip which looks a lot like an explosion in a fireworks factory (annoyingly they disabled embedding – the main show finishes around the 2:15 mark).

What could possibly go wrong?

If you are channelling your inner 10 year old right now, this might all look like amazing fun (and I have to confess, I did rather enjoy watching some of the more spectacular videos out there). But of course, this kind of thing comes with some fairly major risk factors. First of all, there’s the fire that is actually powering the balloon. Balloons regularly come down in forests and inhabited areas and start fires. Brazil’s firefighting services are already woefully underfunded, under-equipped and understaffed, so the last thing they need are random incendiary devices dropping out of the sky.

Then there are those massive racks of fireworks – you don’t want to be around if they starting going off on or near the ground. You can also add in the trauma caused to wildlife and domestic animals. And let’s not forget the danger to aircraft – I would not want one of those balloons drifting into the path of my next flight!

When the balloons come down there is a mad dash to make the resgate (recovery). Apparently they recover the gear underneath and then release the balloon a second time. This can lead to more problems, with people invading other people’s property and generally trashing places in an effort to be the first to re-capture the balloon.

For all these reasons (and probably plenty more I haven’t thought of yet) this activity is illegal and police often appear to disrupt activities and make arrests and confiscations.

Balão sem fogo

Large crowds gathering as a massive balão is prepared for lift off.

Clearly this activity is very popular, despite (or perhaps because of) the fact that it comes with a healthy dose of danger. In an attempt to steer enthusiasts in a safer direction, lawmakers introduced a bill in 2012 to approve Balões sem fogo (balloons without fire).

The Balão sem fogo symbol.

These ‘balloons without fire’ rise through the heat of the sun only and are restricted in size and composition (no metal parts). Also they may only be released in restricted areas between 6am and 4pm. Having said all that, they still look pretty awesome.

A (legal) festival of non-fire balloons in Itapecerica da Serra near São Paulo.

I expect that the baloeiros that have experienced the thrill of releasing a 20 metre balloon with an enormous cache of fireworks into the night sky won’t be hugely impressed or excited by these balões sem fogo, but what can do you? Some things are just too dangerous to be allowed.

If anyone else has any extra information to add to this I’d love to hear it. I certainly don’t approve of the activity, but I have found it a pretty interesting subculture to investigate.