Balloon Drop

[ainsley_clark]

Hi there,

 

I have been researching into balloon drops for absoutley ages, for my girlfriend's birthday party; it is the most complicated thing to grasp. I have contacted many companies and even they are pretty pathetic at awnsering my questions so here goes:

 

I have a couple techniques in mind,

 

1) Pin balloon net to 4 corners using tacks, put balloons in and then attach a rope to the centre of the net heading upwards then using a hook divert it to the decks. When the rope is pulled the balloons drop out from two sides.

 

2) Pin ballon net to 4 corners using tacks, put balloons in and then thread a fishing line through it weaving in and out of the galvinised net then attached to the back of the hall. Then the galvinised net cut in the middle so that the fishing line is holding the balloons. Once the line is pulled, it would release the ballons invertedly.

 

Please help me! I have seen a few products in mind (listed below) but it is like learning a whole new language. I have also visited balloon hq.com they seem to provide bits of information but sounds way to professional. I am looking to drop about 300 hundred balloons.

 

Balloon HQ - http://www.balloonhq.com/faq/deco_effects.html

Pro Balloon Drop Net - http://www.balloonhq.com/sponsor/ldaniels.html

 

Cheers......

[dunk_1984]

Not sure on the scale you are planning on doing it, however have seen it done similarly to your 1st option. Whereby they had a rigid square frame with a net hung from it. Then the square is flown from a point and the net then had a string/thin rope attached to the middle that went up to a point, and was run off to the side of the room, then when the string was pulled, it pulled the net up and forced the balloons to flow out and down.

[Ben Langfeld]

The way I've done it a few times is to have a square net (well, I lie, we used massive football goal nets once) tied at four corners (directly to truss). Fill it with balloons (takes a while, get a few people to help); then (using two people) un-tie two corners and keep tight hold, then when the time comes for the drop, drop the net slightly and pull it back under itself to the other corners. Don't let go, or you'll have party-goers tangled in it, and it takes at least two washes to get most of them out. The balloons spill out a bit at a time, so it's a staggered effect, rather than just a dump. With a big room and a big net you can have it cascade along the room - very cool. When you're done, just tie it back up and recover the net later. It's all good fun, and the only downside is needing two people to do it. Oh, that and having a walkway running alongside where you're dropping from. Add a few pulleys and some elastic and you can do away with the walk-ways.

[boatman]

I've seen this done two ways and both used a net in the shape of an inverted pyramid suspended from a square metal frame. In both cases the centre point of the net has a line attached.

 

If you have sufficient height then suspend the frame a few feet below the ceiling, pass the line through a couple of pulleys and simply haul on the line to pull the centre of the net up and tip the balloons out over the sides.

 

The second method requires D-rings on the four corners of the net with pins to hold them in the corners of the frame. In this case the centre line is attached firmly to the ceiling and a second line runs through a centre ring on the frame. The latter line splits into four lines which are each attached to a corner pin and hauling on this line pulls out the pins and allows the corners of the net to fall. The centre of the net is held securely by the first line and the balloons fall out as the net collapses.

[Jamtastic3]

I had balloons set up for a clubnights 10th birthday. I had 3 long strands of balloons, each paired up and wrapped around 3 individual strings which hung from one side of the room to the stage truss. They kind of looked like long strands of DNA. It took hours yet looked great.

Then about 20 minutes before we closed, one of the DJ's decided to cut the first string stage left as he could just reach where I had tied it. I looked over and 90 odd balloons just fell into the crowd. So another DJ thought it would be good to cut the stage left and centre strings too. Another 150 odd balloons came falling on the crowd. I was first really annoyed that my effort had been destroyed but realised that it was actually a great way to release the balloons. I'm hopefully going to do the same set-up for Hogmanay - this time I'll tell the DJ's when to cut it!

 

A totally different set-up I know but thought I should share... :D

[Dmx512]

And dont forget .....Helium destroys the balloon drop effect !! :)

 

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