THOUSANDS descended on Bristol’s Ashton Court over the weekend for this year’s Bristol International Balloon Fiesta.

The first few days of the four day event, the largest of it's kind in Europe, which ran from Thursday to Sunday were plagued with high winds, preventing several of the scheduled mass ascents, but despite advance warning, crowds continued to gather, and were kept entertained with tethered inflations from many of the crews.

Balloons took to the air for the first time on Saturday evening, to the applause of the crowds, littering the Bristol skyline with colour, repeating the spectacle again on Sunday morning and evening, with a total of 267 balloons taking flight across the event.

Thursday and Saturday also gave late night crowds the chance to witness the famous nightglow shows, as 30 teams lit up their balloons in time to the music, before closing with a spectacular fireworks display.

There were plenty of unique moment to this year’s fiesta, with an engagement and a wedding celebration taking place on site, as well as the maiden voyage of a new balloon in the shape of beloved Aardman character Morph.

As well as balloons, the fiesta also featured a range of aerial displays, including a Spitfire flypast, two displays by Rich Goodwin in the Pitts Special biplane.

There were also performances by the Parabatix Flying Display team, jumps into the arena by the Exit Parachute team and visits and demonstrations by the Great Western Air Ambulance Charity, the Fiesta’s official charity partner.

Sue Atkinson, chair of the Fiesta Organising Committee, said: “Big thanks to the people of Bristol for turning out to support our balloonists and the event this weekend.

“After some fast winds we had three incredible mass ascents with 267 balloon flights taking off. It was a real family affair this year with new children’s area from Cirque Bijou and two music stages.”