The Cleveland BalloonFest Fiasco (1986) w/ Clare Malone

It’s September 19th. In 1986, the city of Cleveland decided to stage a charity event in which they released millions of balloons into the air. It went very, very poorly.

Jody, Niki, and Kellie are joined by The New Yorker’s Clare Malone, a Cleveland native, to discuss why balloonfest went so wrong, and what to make of Cleveland’s many attempts at rehabilitating its image.

Here’s a video of Balloonfest: https://youtu.be/n0CT8zrw6lw

Be sure to check out Clare’s Ringer podcast series “Just Like Us.”

Sign up for our newsletter! Find out more at thisdaypod.com

And don’t forget about Oprahdemics, hosted by Kellie, out now from Radiotopia.

This Day In Esoteric Political History is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX.

Your support helps foster independent, artist-owned podcasts and award-winning stories.

If you want to support the show directly, you can do so on our website: ThisDayPod.com

Get in touch if you have any ideas for future topics, or just want to say hello. Our website is thisdaypod.com Follow us on social @thisdaypod

Our team: Jacob Feldman, Researcher/Producer; Brittani Brown, Producer; Khawla Nakua, Transcripts; music by Teen Daze and Blue Dot Sessions; Audrey Mardavich is our Executive Producer at Radiotopia

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices