Bristol is delighted to have been chosen to stage the Gordon Bennett Balloon Race - the world's oldest aeronautical challenge. This is the first time in its long and prestigious history the event has been staged in the UK, thanks to David Hempleman-Adams, who became the first Brit to win the event in 2008.
Hempleman-Adams is Gloucestershire-based and Bristol can boast another local connection in that of Charles Rolls (of Rolls Royce fame) who took part in the first staging of the event in 1906.
Bristol City Council is ready to welcome visitors from around the world to our great city.
Hosting the internationally renowned 2010 Gordon Bennett Balloon Race will complement Bristol’s exciting annual sporting and cultural programme and, for the first time, bring a new dimension to the city’s passion for ballooning.
Bristol is the seventh largest city in England with a population in the region of 416,000 living within the city boundaries - and around 1 million people living across the city region and travel-to-work area as a whole.
Bristol City Council is the largest employer in southwest, with approximately 18,000 full time employees. It is a unitary authority responsible for all council services and has an annual net budget of £360 million. The city council is proud of its national and international achievements, such as being one of only five cities to be named by the British government as a recognised UK Centre of Cultural Excellence. It is also one of the UK’s recognised Science Cities and the UK’s first official Cycling City. And on a European level, Bristol is the only UK city to be a finalist for the European Union Green Capital award.
For more information about Bristol City Council, visit http://www.bristol.gov.uk