Kerry's Balloon Drop is all f*@$%&ed up

The Story

If you missed it, check out some of the news stories. Essentially, they totally blew the 100,000 balloon drop that was supposed to punctuate Kerry's triumphant acceptance speech. The DNC convention organizer was miked on CNN, and used some colorful language as the balloons dribbled out of the nets. Drudge, of course, got the audio on his site within minutes.

The whole incident is hilarious. Proving the old adage, you get what you pay for.

Every paper seems to have covered it. The Boston Globe reported "The balloon drop was orchestrated by Maureen Curreri, owner of Boston Balloon Events of South Boston." And yes, that's the same Maureen from Telebelles. Her quote afterwards to the Globe "We didn't have any problems." Yeah, right. No problems. Like balloon drops are supposed to suck.

Why does this matter? Well, because "A successful balloon drop is huge. The balloon drop is the last thing people see at the convention. It culminates the speech of the next president of the United States. And it's part of the folklore of conventions and people expect a good balloon drop," said Peggy Wilhide of the DNC Committee in this story.


Counterpoint

As Sheena from BalloonHQ pointed out, and further explained by Chrs Jackson, perhaps this was the original plan and the organizer miked on CNN just did not know. Once the balloon drop got going, it looked very nice. It was a slow drop, with the balloons falling out gradually like rain instead of one big spurt. So perhaps all of us are wrong, and the folks at Boston Balloon Events are being unfairly slammed in the media.



The Fallout

Reuters.com has a story with a few funny lines, but nothing comes close to Dave Barry's comments:

The speech ended with the traditional balloon drop," which was slightly less festive than usual because the balloons, for security reasons, were not inflated. (A Secret Service spokesperson explained: "Air contains nitrogen, which we have reason to believe is a chemical.")

Now that we know what happened, looking back to stories the day before is a bit morbid yet I can't help it. Reading this article about the pre-balloon drop plans is like watching the happy setup in old Westerns before the bad guys ride into town. Here's a taste:

Tonight culminates a marathon of planning and preparing that began in March, and continued through last week’s sprint to inflate 100,000 balloons, stick them in 100-foot-long nets, and position them in the upper reaches of the FleetCenter.

Now Curreri prays that her calculations of everything from balloon size to wind speed are on the money.

“You dot your i’s and cross your t’s,” said Curreri, owner of Boston Balloon Events of South Boston. “Then it’s in God’s hands.”

For the record, Maureen was asked by a member of the New England QBN chapter if she wanted some balloon professionals to help with the drop. Obviously, she did not. According to this interview by Newscenter 5, Maureen hired 60 teenagers for $100/day. Her pithy answer to what if the balloon drop fails? "I have a house in England. Bye!"

You can't make this stuff up!


What Went Wrong

The balloon drop was important enough to the Boston Globe for them to run few articles about it. They went into enough detail to warrant a sketch of the entire process. Their reporting gave us a clue as to what went wrong. The Globe reported that, "Curreri had used a zigzag chain stitch until one snagged at a 1986 Boston City Hall event; now she uses a straight base stitch."

Does the stiching really matter? Yes, according to balloon decorator Patty Sorell:

the running stitch wasused for the drops, not the chain stitch. For a balloon net that is 100 feet long, the tension on the line for a running stitch would be too great for me to pull, even if the line is waxed. In addition, most running stitches need to be pulled from a straight line, in-line with the net. Pulling at any other angle would create even more tension. With a chain stitch, you can pull easily (it almost unravells for you) and from any angle.

There is an entire discussion of stiching techniques on BalloonHQ, with quotes such as, [the Chain Stich] is the only way I would ever do a drop again since I have had two (2) failures with other weaving.

Was the stitching the culprit? We'll never know. Everyone involved says No Comment. Maybe they'll hire Treb back next year . . . . . .