Mexico was a proud host city to the 10th annual International Balloon Festival, the largest balloon festival in Latin America. The four-day event took place November 18-21, 2011, in Leon, a city in the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

More than 300,000 spectators, including 162,000 from outside Mexico, attended the event and enjoyed the 200 balloons with a variety of shapes and colors filling in the skies, including a bright-colored clown, the Star Wars figure Darth Vader, a cake, a smiling bug, among many others.

According to reports, this international event has been attended by more than 2 million people over the past 10 years.

One of the festival’s biggest draws this year was the world’s youngest pilot, 9-year-old Bobby Bradley. Bradley is from Albuquerque, New Mexico, a city famous for hosting the world’s largest balloon festival. While international regulation prevents Bradley from flying a conventional balloon until age 16, Bradley says he is excited to fly in the International Balloon Festival with his smaller, ultra-light balloon.

Marca Pais - Imagen de Mexico is an initiative to help promote a positive image of Mexico as a global business partner and an unrivaled tourist destination abroad.