Quick Chek Balloon Festival Named Top 100 North American Event

WHITEHOUSE STATION, N.J. -- Quick Chek Corp.'s Festival of Ballooning was named one of the Top 100 Events in North America for 2013 by the American Bus Association (ABA).

The event, presented by the convenience store chain in association with PNC Bank, is the largest summertime hot air balloon and music festival. The ABA selected the event to its top 100 list because it "offers an excellent entertainment value to those planning group tours and vacations." The festival joins many heavyweights who appeared on the list previously, including Mardi Gras, the Texas State Fair, the Indianapolis 500, several Super Bowls and the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

This marks the sixth time that the Festival of Ballooning was named to ABA's list. "We're honored to be selected again as one of the Top 100 Events in North America," said Howard Freeman, executive producer of the festival. "We work very hard to make the festival a must attend destination and the best event of its kind year after year. Being on the ABA list, along with the national television coverage we received this past year, is further testament that we are truly a national event."

The top 100 list will be published as a supplement to the September/October issue of Destinations magazine.

The 2013 31st annual Quick Chek Festival of Ballooning is scheduled to take place from July 26-28 at Solberg Airport in Readington, N.J.

As CSNews Online reported earlier, the 2012 Festival of Ballooning drew about 160,000 people and featured musical performances from Eddie Money, Smokey Robinson and Bret Michaels.