Darth Vader at NJ's Annual Festival of Ballooning

The 26th Annual Quick Chek NJ Festival of Ballooning, with Darth Vader. — Gothamist

Jen Chung

Published Jul 26, 2008

Modified Jul 26, 2008

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Just 50 miles from NYC, Readington, NJ is hosting the The 26th Annual Quick Chek New Jersey Festival of Ballooning. The festival, which started yesterday, offers a number of different balloons, including a Pepsi can, a version of Noah's Ark, and some bees. But the coolest--or at least the Sithest--one would be Michel Lambert and Benoit Lambert's Darth Vader Balloon. The Darth Vader Balloon's Belgian creators received permission from LucasFilm to make the balloon and first launched it last year. They say they picked the registration "OO-BQZ" because "We wanted to choose letters more closely related to the Star Wars universe."

Tomorrow is the festival's last day; balloons ascensions are at 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. (weather permitting). Here's more information.