Karen Quincy Loberg / Star staff Cindy Wilkinson, co-owner of Fantasy Balloon Flights, assists in the inflation of a hot air balloon at Limoneira in Santa Paula for a private event recently. Her husband, Steve, will be the balloon meister at this weekend's festival in Santa Paula.

Joseph Melookaran, left, is served by Chris Adams while a Fantasy Balloon Flights hot air balloon is inflated at Limoneira in Santa Paula for a private event on Friday evening. The Santa Paula sky will be filled with hot air balloon as the city has its first hot air balloon festival on July 25 & 26.

Jordan Wilkinson of Fantasy Balloon Flights ties down a line at a recent private event. Some of the proceeds from this weekend's festival will go to various area groups.

When Carla Edwards heard some hot air balloon operators were looking at Montecito as a potential site for a festival, she persuaded them to choose Santa Paula instead — then spent the next seven months working to organize the festival.

Her efforts come to fruition Friday, when the first Citrus Classic will be held at Santa Paula Airport.

"I didn't want to lose the window of opportunity to get it anchored in Santa Paula," Edwards said.

The festival will feature 23 balloons from across the Southwest. Competitions, tethered rides and a "balloon glow" with lights are planned. Edwards expects 3,000 to 7,000 people to attend.

"This is in everyone's backyard," she said, noting it is the first hot air balloon festival to be held in Ventura County.

Steve Wilkinson, who, along with his wife, Cindy, owns Fantasy Balloon Flights, is the festival's balloon meister. That means he coordinates matters involving the balloon flights, from designing the race to handling paperwork. He has flown balloons for decades.

"It's very gentle, very serene-feeling," he said.

During the "Hare and Hound" event scheduled for Saturday morning, Wilkinson will likely be the "hare" — he'll fly out ahead of the other balloons and drop a marker. The other balloon pilots will then go out and try to drop their own baggies as close to the marker as possible.

The baggies are bags filled with birdseed, Wilkinson said, and each has a 6-foot-long tail designed to slow its descent to prevent harm in case it hits someone.

Wilkinson is also coordinating the "balloon glow," a lighting event that will kick off the festival at dusk Friday. During the glow, the balloons are tethered to the ground and lit up to music.

"All those colors start shooting out on anything — people, buildings, trees they're like huge colored light bulbs going on and off," Wilkinson said.

The proceeds from admissions and parking will defray the cost of putting together the festival, Edwards said. Proceeds from sales in the beer and wine garden will go to the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce and the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Clarita, while the Knights of Columbus will receive proceeds from one of the parking lots.

Edwards hopes the festival will increase Santa Paula's visibility. The city offers an expanse of agricultural land with a line of vision to the Pacific Ocean, making it a unique place for balloonists, she said.

"People are starting to look at Santa Paula as a tourism destination," she said. "It's really a new and exciting place for balloon pilots to fly."