International Ballooning Festival | Coruche Portugal

WELCOME INVITATION

We are pleased to invite you to participate in the 3rd edition of the Coruche International Ballooning Festival (Portugal), a Windpassenger organization.

The event will take place in the central area of ​​Portugal, 50 minutes from the eastern zone of Lisbon, between October 29 and November 3, 2019.

Coruche is located in a territory that offers excellent conditions for the practice of ballooning, with a diverse landscape characterized by the presence of impressive areas of “Montado” Forest, of the Sorraia River - a tributary of the Tagus River, the largest river in Portugal coming from Spain - and of the Sorraia Agricultural Valley, locally called "Lezíria Ribatejana", one of the most fertile agricultural areas in Portugal where tons of high quality corn and rice are produced each year.

In the territory that is destined to the flights of hot air balloons during the Festival is located the “Montado” Forest. According to the United Nations (UN) and World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF), this type of forest, which can be found only in the territories of the Mediterranean basin, is one of the 35 most important ecosystems in the world of biodiversity, being equated with the Amazon, the African Savannah or Borneo. It is a habitat for species of plants and birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians. It is from these forests, precisely from the tree call locally "Sobreiro", that cork is extracted, an incredible natural product, commonly found as a wine sealant through the cork stopple. The world production of cork is 340 thousand tons per year, of which 55% comes from Portugal.

The extraction of cork is a controlled process that does not require the cut of the cork trees, on the contrary, it contributes to its regeneration. It is the cork industry that enables the continuity of the “Montado” Forest, by contributing to the maintenance of the forests and the populations that depend on them. A recent estimate predicts that only in Portugal, where there is the largest world assembly area, the exploitable cork will be sufficient to meet market demand over the next 100 years. On average, in Coruche, where there are several industrial cork processing units, almost 6 million corks stopples are produced per day, which are then exported daily to the world.

Coruche is also a territory with past and history. It is not known for certain when the population of Coruche settled, but there are several archaeological finds that prove the human presence since the Palaeolithic.

Coruche receives his first charter as "Villa de Coruche" by D. Afonso Henriques on May 26, 1182, confirmed by D. Sancho I in 1189, and by D. Afonso II, in 1218, remaining until D. Manuel. This important document came to establish a council and regulate its administration, borders and privileges.

For all that it represents, Coruche is a territory that inspires confidence, culture, innovation and development, preserving the rural characteristics and the enormous passion for nature.

We are therefore certain that our invitation is irrefutable, being guaranteed a presence in Coruche full of reasons of interest for all those in love with ballooning.

We therefore request your demonstration of interest in participating in the 3rd edition of the Coruche International Ballooning Festival so that we can provide the registration conditions as well as information on what is being planned for the 2019 event. Our objective is to create a fun filled event for all the participating ballooning teams and at the same time keep our sponsors interested in upcoming events, entertaining the audience with a simply fantastic hot air balloon show.

We sincerely hope this event is of interest to you and your team. We promise a lot of work so that your presence in Coruche is full of fun and happiness, and more important, that the flights are joyful and safe.

If you need more information, please do not hesitate to contact us.

We look forward to welcoming you and your team in October 2019!