Who knew stagecoaches could fly?

Like a scene from a Walt Disney movie, many early-risers in Bend on Saturday needed only to look up to see about 26 hot air balloons pass over their houses before 7 a.m.

”We’re being invaded!” joked Brandon Govner, 27, while standing outside his house on Northwest Ithaca Avenue.

”Did you see Smokey the Bear?”

The odd-shaped balloons that dotted Bend’s sky Friday and Saturday – and that will do so again this morning – are part of the first-ever Balloons over Bend festival.

Saturday’s activities also included an air show at Bend airport with smoke jumpers, Lancair factory tours and aircraft displays.

During the afternoon and evening, The Shops at the Old Mill in Bend hosted kayak races, wine tasting and a Night Glow Show of the inflated balloons as they sat on the ground.

Gayle Najera, vice president of publications for the Bend Chamber of Commerce, said she hopes the event will become a signature event.

”That’s our goal,” she said in a phone interview.

”We wanted to bring something to the Bend community that had never been done before.”

Many of the hundreds who showed up at Summit High School’s baseball fields just after 5 a.m. on Saturday to watch the balloons lift off from the grass said that’s exactly why the came.

”It’s exciting. It’s beautiful. It’s something new,” said Brian Jarvis, 41, as he stood with his wife and two young daughters near the inflating balloons on Saturday morning.

”Yesterday, they were so close I swear I could tell you if the woman up there was wearing eye shadow,” said Terese Jarvis, 35, describing Friday morning’s flyover.

”We’re going to come out again (today),” Brian Jarvis said.

Two of the balloons in this weekend’s extravaganza are flown by locals.

Brann and Kara Smith own a Sunriver-based company called Skydancer Balloons where an hourlong ride costs about $195.

The Smiths took Hillary Nagelhout, 23, on her first balloon ride Saturday.

She said she was ”excited and nervous,” but insisted that she wasn’t afraid of heights.

Kathy and Steve Peters, the latter who serves as the event’s ”balloonmeister,” also hail from Sunriver.

Steve Peters is responsible for assessing the weather conditions before each day’s launch and deciding if it’s safe for the balloons to fly.

Andy Kofferd, 16, watched the balloons take off with his grandfather, Max Williams, 76. Kofferd was itching to get up in the air, too.

”I’d love to take a ride,” he said.

Mike Cronin can be reached at 541-617-7836 or mcronin@bendbulletin.com