Qatar Balloon Festival
The seventh Qatar Balloon Festival has been postponed. The organiser has withdrawn 10–19 December 2026 and has not announced replacement dates.
The festival’s organising committee says it cannot deliver the December event to the intended standard and will announce new dates once they are confirmed. The venue is also still to be announced. There is therefore no confirmed festival date around which to book travel.
Existing expressions of interest and applications from international balloonists will be retained. The organiser says applicants do not need to submit again and will be contacted when the schedule is settled. That arrangement concerns participants; it is not an announcement that public ticket sales have reopened.
The previous edition featured 45 balloons, including 35 special shapes, according to the organiser. Those are historical figures, not a confirmed line-up for the postponed seventh edition. The Doha skyline image is a location photograph and does not show a festival venue. Follow the official announcement page for the replacement programme.
Sources and photograph
Editorial review: 9 November 2026. Source 1
Doha’s skyline. Context photograph only; the postponed festival’s venue has not been announced. Photograph by Thameur Belghith. CC BY-SA 4.0. Responsive versions may be cropped and resized.