ABOUT 40,000 people have descended on Knavesmire for this year's York Balloon Fiesta.

The three-day festival finishes today (September 30) and has pulled in huge crowds who have been treated to mass balloon launches on all three days. There were dazzling balloon night glow events on Friday and Saturday, with a firework display accompanying the event on Saturday evening.

The festival has also featured a fun fair, birds of prey show, children’s activities and entertainment, along with live music, a beer tent, street food stalls from Yorkshire vendors and more.

Oliver Webb, who has organised the festival with Damian Torrington, said: "Overall I think it has been absolutely amazing. We've had the numbers.

"People have come down in their droves and everyone has enjoyed it.

"We've had three successful mass balloon launches. We've had two night glows.

"There have been 50 balloons on site. The most balloons in the air at one time was on Saturday morning when there were 45 balloons."

The festival has been blamed for causing traffic chaos on Saturday afternoon and evening in Tadcaster Road and the city centre.

First York tweeted: "Major delays on all First York services. Traffic resulting from the Balloon Fiesta has brought York Centre to gridlock, most services running 60+ minutes late."

Meanwhile, Cityzap tweeted: "Due to very heavy traffic on Tadcaster Road due to #YorkBalloonFiesta our buses are running between 30-45mins late."

Oliver said: "There were 25,000 people on site and when that many people arrive you're going to have increased levels of traffic.

"We managed the situation as safely and efficiently as possible.

"We can look at what happened and make improvements for future years."

He added: "We'd like to thank our sponsors York’s Ultra Fibre Optic from TalkTalk for their support."