Balloon pilot Bruce Byberg talks through logistics Thursday at Simard-Payne Memorial Park in Lewiston. Byberg will fly the RE/MAX hot air balloon during the three-day Great Falls balloon Festival. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Great Falls Balloon Festival board member Colleen Landry of Auburn stocks the souvenir and information booth Thursday at Simard-Payne Memorial Park in Lewiston. The weather looks promising for the three-day festival. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Nel Morin of Auburn pulls a container of Boom Boom Sauce from a box Thursday at Simard-Payne Memorial Park in Lewiston. He helps run the New England Showman’s Scholarship Fund food booth during the Great Falls Balloon Festival. Morin said while the blooming onions are what’s listed on the menu, it’s the Boom Boom Sauce people will wait in a 10-minute line for. “When we run out of Boom Boom Sauce, people get angry,” he said. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Khloe Kirk, 15, of Lewiston and her brother, Kaden Kirk, 11, haul supplies Thursday to the Auburn Wreckers Youth Cheering food booth at Simard-Payne Memorial Park in Lewiston. The siblings’ mother, Krystal Kirk, said after two years of no balloon festival and the 2019 festival under pouring rain, she is excited to see balloons launch once again. “The weather looks amazing, and we are so excited to be back,” she said. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Alan Collins runs electrical cords Thursday while getting ready for the Great Falls Balloon Festival in Lewiston this weekend. The logistics coordinator for the festival took a week’s vacation from his job to help prepare Simard-Payne Memorial Park for the balloon festival. “Looks like we have a clear weekend,” he said. “We are very excited.” Daryn Slover/Sun Journal

Buck Galipeau, left, and Bert Cote of Lewiston Public Works cover the entrance to Simard-Payne Memorial Park Thursday in Lewiston with hay for trucks to drive over to unload hot air balloons. The hay will help keep the lawn nice, Galipeau said. Daryn Slover/Sun Journal