Time to Fly

Make sure the alarm works if you want to wake up in time for this one.

Or hit the snooze, enjoy that precious sleep and party with Ivan Neville.

"BalloonaPalooza II" is really two festivals in one, explains Patrick Genovese, who is coordinating the three-day event for the city of North Las Vegas.

Hot air balloons are the star of the show at Craig Ranch Regional Park, 628 W. Craig Road. But they can't always perform and don't stick around long when they do.

Last year, Saturday winds grounded the sunrise launch of the 25 balloons. Sunday went according to plan, but "that's typical of balloon festivals," Genovese says. "That's why they're nearly always multiday deals. It has to be pretty calm for them to fly."

And balloonists always get their best mix of calm skies and cool temperatures at sunrise, so people start showing up at 5 a.m. for the 6:30 a.m. mass ascension.

Once the balloons are up and gone, there's no guarantee when they'll be back. Last year, some stayed in the air only a half-hour, landing a couple of miles away. But one drifted two hours, northwest of the North Las Vegas Airport, says Kim Lynch, the Temecula, Calif.-based "balloonmeister" who coordinates the aerialists.

"Most festivals are held in areas where there's more vacant land," she says, but most pilots need only a 50-foot-by-100-foot area to set one down. Once in a while, weather conditions offer what pilots call "the box," when winds offer the right direction for a round trip that allows a return to the park.

Wherever they go, the balloons won't be back until sunset, when they will be fired up for a "balloon glow" at 7:30 p.m. today and 7 p.m. Saturday.

That's why the "Palooza" part of the festival includes carnival attractions, circus acts, Saturday fireworks and two music stages, one for grown-ups and one for kids. The biggest musical draw is Sunday's 3:30 p.m. grand finale set by Neville, who had some success in the late 1980s and has played with the Neville Brothers and with Keith Richards' solo band, the X-Pensive Winos.

His current band, Dumpstaphunk, is a New Orleans twist on old-school funk.

It might not be such a reach for a balloon festival. Lynch says balloonists come from all walks of life, but an outgoing personality is the No. 1 description of every balloon pilot.

"It's a 'Hey, look at me!' thing," she says.

Schedule highlights:

TODAY

5:45 p.m. -- Milkshake

6 p.m. -- Circus show

6:30 p.m. Lady J

7:30 p.m. -- Balloon glow

8 p.m. --Circus show

8:30 p.m. -- The Shills

SATURDAY

6:30 a.m. -- Balloon mass ascension

8 a.m. -- Circus show (also at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 4 p.m.)