Great Forest Park Balloon Race

St. Louis, MO · Sports

When: September 18–19, 2026
Where: Emerson Central Fields, Forest Park · St. Louis · MO
Cost: Not confirmed
Status: Confirmed from the organizer's published schedule

Forest Park has hosted this free hot air balloon weekend since 1973, one of the country's longest-running balloon races. Friday's Balloon Glow lights the tethered balloons after dark at Emerson Central Fields, and Saturday's race sends 50-plus balloons chasing a lead hare balloon across the St. Louis sky.

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The history within reach

Great Forest Park Balloon Racesame spot
Forest Park has hosted this free hot air balloon weekend since 1973, one of the country's longest-running balloon races.
The Saint Louis Art Museum0.2 mi
The only major building from the 1904 fair meant to be permanent, built in stone while the rest was staff plaster.
The Saint Louis Zoo0.5 mi
Begun around a walk-through aviary left behind by the 1904 fair, and free every day since, one of the few major zoos in the world with no admission charge.
The 1904 World's Fair and Olympics0.6 mi
Twenty million people came to 1,200 acres of temporary palaces, and the Olympics were folded in as a sideshow.
Forest Park0.6 mi
Five hundred acres larger than Central Park, and free to enter along with the art museum, zoo, science centre and history museum inside it, a tax district voted by the public keeps them that way.