Alabama Jubilee Hot Air Balloon Classic

Each year the Jubilee hosts about 60 local and national hot-air balloons at Point Mallard Park.

It was a showcase for the new Decatur balloon, one of the first to represent a city, and an event to kick off Alabama's tourism season.

[citation needed] The 2020 event went virtual, due to public gathering restrictions in Alabama caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The continued popularity of the Alabama Jubilee prompted the Alabama Legislature to designate the City of Decatur as the “Ballooning Capital of Alabama.”[citation needed] The Jubilee has been named a Top 20 Tourism Event in the Southeast for May by the Atlanta-based Southeast Tourism Society.

[citation needed] The Alabama Jubilee is held on the grounds of Point Mallard Park, a municipal recreation complex that offers a 35-acre (140,000 m2) water park featuring an aquatic center with a wave pool, Olympic-sized swimming pools, lazy river, and several water slides, as well as tennis courts, ball fields, hiking trails, campground, 18-hole championship golf course, indoor ice skating rink and recreation center.

Spectators mingle with hot air balloons at the Alabama Jubilee circa 1990 while balloonists inflate their craft for the evening activities.

Hot air balloons inflating at the 2005 Alabama Jubilee