This year marked the 41st anniversary of the Albuquerque Balloon Festival.

There’s nothing better than a truckload of people (in this case, upwards of 800,000!), getting together for an entire week, to celebrate and participate in something that brings them nothing but pleasure.

There must be a positive reverberation, felt far and wide, from this sort of declaration.

Though I’ve seen time-lapse photography of hot air balloon rallies before—I never cease to be delighted.

And for a pocket of time after viewing such a delight, I want to do nothing but create something, simply for its beauty.

This time-lapse video was taken by Joel Schat. Well done, sir. I shall go to sleep tonight with sugarplums dancing in my head.

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Editor: Rachel Nussbaum

{Photo: Danbri; Video: Joel Schat}