There’s something so meditative and calm about hot air balloons.

Whether you’re along for the ride or just watching from the ground.

The way they float along the breeze, no engine, just a flame every now and again from the burners that cause them to catch air.

“It’s such an amazing way to fly and see the world,” said Troy Bradley, chief pilot for Rainbow Ryders. “No two flights are the same. You can take off from the same location and never land in the same place twice.”

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Bradley will be one of the 80 to 90 pilots flying 70 balloons at this year’s free Colorado Springs Labor Day Lift Off in Memorial Park. The 49th annual event is Saturday through Monday. Ten of those balloons will be specially shaped, including Ziggy the raccoon and Mario the race car.

The park and concessions open at 5:15 a.m. and the balloons hopefully ascend at 7 a.m. It’s always a nail-biter whether the weather will be conducive to flights, though last year was a lucky one, with balloons cleared for takeoff all three days.

Two waves of 35 balloons will make a break for it. Where they’ll land, nobody knows. But that’s part of the fun.

“It never gets old,” Bradley said. “Once you’re up in the balloon there’s no wind because you’re part of the wind. People who are scared of heights — even myself, I’m not crazy about standing on a ladder — but in the balloon it’s like standing on a high balcony. You don’t even know you’re moving.”

If you don’t want to bob and weave your way through traffic to Memorial Park, balloons likely can be seen from vantage points around the city.

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“They’re at the mercy of the winds,” said Lauren DeMarco, marketing manager for Colorado Springs Sports Corp., which produces the event with Hot Apple Productions. “They float around the city, out east, I-25, Garden of the Gods. They take over the skies. There’s no bad spot, but there’s nothing quite like being at the park. You can interact with the pilots and get close to the basket and see them inflate.”

If the morning weather conditions refuse to cooperate and the balloons stay grounded, there’s always the 7 p.m. Balloon Glo on Saturday and Sunday, when 20 to 30 of the balloons stay tethered but are inflated and illuminated by their burners.

“Over 200,000 people come through the park over the weekend,” DeMarco said. “People who usually go camping on Labor Day stay in town to attend the Lift Off.”

The event also features an early drone show by the Grizzly Drones; Wings of Blue, a skydiving team from the Air Force Academy; Aerial Aura acrobats; concerts by nationally known country star Cody Cozz; and the local rock cover band SofaKillers.

A new RMSG Parkour Competition will take place at the skate park. Parkour is using the most efficient movement, such as jumping, climbing and vaulting, to get from one spot to another in an urban environment.

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For the brave who want a taste of the high life, Bradley and Rainbow Ryders will offer balloon rides lasting about 45 minutes to an hour. He’s a good bet as a pilot, being as he got his commercial license to fly at 18 and has flown professionally for more than 40 years. And he’s got 64 ballooning records, half of which are world records.

“My grandparents were one of the first balloonists in Colorado,” he said. “They started in the early ’70s and attended the first Colorado Springs event. My mother’s also a pilot; my father-in-law was a pilot, who I taught. My wife is a pilot, and our two children are fourth-generation pilots.”