THE changeable weather ensured that last weekend's balloon fiesta at Knavesmire wasn't all plain sailing. All of Sunday's balloon flights had to be cancelled.

But there were enough balloons which did manage to take to the air on Friday and Saturday - including a mass flight of 26 together on Saturday morning, and a spectacular 'nightglow' event on Saturday evening at which tethered balloons were lit up by fibreoptics - to make for an extraordinary spectacle.

For Press photographer Frank Dwyer, the event also gave the chance of an unforgettable balloon flight over the city.

"It had been a while since I had been up in a balloon," he says. "And it really is amazing the way it changes your perspective.

"It was so peaceful and serene up there: and looking down on the city you see it from such a different point of view. You really do get a good sense of the way the Minster still dominates its surroundings."

Frank took a series of dramatic photographs of balloons over the skyline of York, some of which we carry today. But he also seized the opportunity to capture some brilliant aerial photographs of York itself. We'll run more of those in the next week or so.

Meanwhile, organisers of the event have already said they hope to be back next year.

"We want to make it an event to mark the end of the ballooning season, a final party, and we want to keep it at the racecourse," organiser Oliver Webb told The Press.

This wasn't York's first balloon fiesta, as has been claimed. There are plenty of photographs of balloon galas being held at Bootham Park at the turn of the last century and even before, and there have been more recent balloon events, too.

But there's a particular magic to seeing balloons floating over a historic skyline like York's. It would be great if this were to become an annual event.

Here's to next year...

Stephen Lewis