The Great Falls Balloon Festival was facing an uncertain future after thieves stole $50,000 in electrical cables from a festival storage trailer, but now organizers are confident the three-day extravaganza will take off as planned on Aug. 21 – thanks in large part to upgrades by Lewiston to Simard-Payne Memorial Park.

A steady stream of contributions and fundraisers have helped organizers climb within striking distance of their fundraising goal of $26,000, but it was the city project, which includes significant electrical improvements to the park, which cut in half the amount of money the festival needed to raise to replace lost equipment.

“We still have a little ways to go, but we’ll get there,” said the festival’s treasurer, Mell Hamlyn. She said the festival has received about $18,000 in financial contributions and in-kind donations of material and labor, and that was before a fundraising event Friday at the Lewiston-Auburn Liberty Festival.

The balloon festival‘s main attractions are the mammoth hot air balloons, many of them in unusual shapes and designs, that rise from the park and sometimes other areas, dotting the sky like colorful ornaments. The event also includes music and entertainment and this year will include an African acrobatic troupe that was a runner-up on the “America’s Got Talent” television competition.

Dozens of nonprofit groups also depend on the festival as a huge fundraiser, setting up food booths and other stalls to serve and benefit from thousands of people who turn out.

‘IT’S COLORFUL, EXCITING’

“I’d like to think it’s really important to the people of the communities of Lewiston and Auburn and the surrounding towns,” said festival spokeswoman Christina Noonan, noting that the festival is in its 24th year. “It’s colorful, exciting. You can kind of be a part of it even if you’re not at the field because the balloons fly over your house.”

The whole thing was in jeopardy, though, after someone stole coils of electrical cable from the festival’s storage area.

Organizers announced in April on the festival’s Facebook page that $50,000 in cords and other equipment used to electrify the field at Simard-Payne Memorial Park had been stolen over the winter. The festival didn’t have money to replace the equipment.

“We were pretty discouraged, pretty upset over the thefts and what we had laying ahead of us because we’re a small group and work hard to bring the festival to the community. To add that (fundraising) to it was pretty discouraging,” Hamlyn said.

They turned their focus to fundraising and set up a GoFundMe site.

Within a few weeks they had raised $7,000 from the site and direct contributions.

“We got into gear, got moving and funds started to come in. We’re in festival planning mode now, putting the final wraps on everything,” she said.

Police surmised the cables had probably already been stripped and sold as scrap copper, which is difficult to trace. The festival carried liability insurance but not for theft.

The cables weren’t only essential to the balloon festival.

The cables also benefited the Dempsey Challenge, the annual run, walk and bicycle ride held in October to raise money for the Patrick Dempsey Center for Cancer Hope & Healing. The balloon festival has loaned the cables to the Dempsey Challenge for the festival in the park that marks the end of the ride.

As part of a multiyear park improvement plan, the city this year made $80,000 in electrical upgrades, including installing underground cables, three 200-amp electrical panels and a transformer, said Dave Jones, the city’s public works director. The work is designed to benefit the many functions and events that use the sprawling park grounds along the Androscoggin River.

‘WE HAD TO DO SOMETHING’

“We’ve known for years we had to do something” to upgrade electricity at the park, Jones said. “It just happens it helps out the balloon festival this year.”

The use of underground cable and fixed electrical panels will be an improvement over temporary fixtures and having to run cables over the ground that people then drive or walk on. The electrical work is part of a $300,000 project at the park that includes upgrading an amphitheater that could accommodate speakers and small concerts, Jones said.

Though the festival runs for just three days in the summer, organizers work almost year-round on the event. Hamlyn said they already have secured some of the special balloon shapes that will be featured this year, including a giant fishbowl, a massive hummingbird and a balloon that looks like the Earth.