The Balloon Blog by Sue Bowler: The Biggest Labyrinth in the World at the Millennium Jam 2015!

Monday, October 12, 2015

The Biggest Labyrinth in the World at the Millennium Jam 2015!

After a five-year break, the Millennium Jam is finally back! This year, the Millennium Jam is celebrating the 20th Anniversary of IBS, International Balloon Services, Belgium.

It all began in June 2000, when IBS owners Johan Wijns and Leo Verlinden, decided to organise their own event and the Millennium Jam was conceived!

This event is sponsored exclusively by Qualatex^®, and returns to the Sunparks Resort, Mol, Belgium.

From the 9th-12th November 2015, this action-packed event has four days of workshops with an incredible line-up of instructors, parties, competitions and other fun activities, including the return of the legendary Iron Latex Man competition!

During the week leading up to the Millennium Jam, starting on Wednesday 4th November, Didier Dvorak, CBA of Canniballoon in Switzerland will lead the construction of an enormous maze made almost entirely with Qualatex Quick Link Balloons™.

I asked Didier if he could share a few secrets about his incredible maze!

"The maze will be approximately 560m2, making this the biggest maze ever built. We will have four teams; each team will have a team leader and two dedicated team members. We will be using 80,000 Quick Link Balloons and Conwin Precision Airs to inflate the balloons. The technique will be simple, and we will only use round balloons to close the walls. There will be no frames - it will be totally self supporting! Of course, the balloons will be all the same colour... we don't want to make it too easy! When the maze is complete, it will have approximately 400m of corridors to follow or get lost around!

To make the maze even more exciting, it will contain five secret rooms! Each room will contain a secret code which, if found, will be rewarded during the final night gala!

We have a different team of designers for the secret rooms. Our team leaders for this project are Olga Baranova, CBA and Olga Samoilova, CBA from Russia. There will be two teams working on the secret rooms. Team Russia, who along with Olga and Olga will have fellow Russian artists, Enzhe Musina and Frantsuz Nikolay joining them. The other team is being led by designers Florence Buret and Manon Dudziak of France."

I asked Didier what inspired him to work on this incredible project?

"I truly love to work on big projects; small is beautiful, but bigger is better!

I built a smaller maze about eight years ago. That one was approximately 220m2, using 20,000 balloons with 300 meters of corridors. A short while afterwards, a bigger maze was built in Brasil. That one was approximately 360m2. I love big and crazy projects and I felt it was the right time and occasion to built the biggest maze ever!"

Canniballoon (Didier Dvorak), with his wife and business partner Silke Pan, both CBA (Certified Balloon Artists), devote their creativity in the world of balloons; decor, entertainment and spectacle. Didier will also be teaching at the World Balloon Convention 2016 in New Orleans, USA, where he will be teaching an Advanced Quick Links class - definitely a class not to be missed!

If you are planning to attend the Millennium Jam, why not come early and join the fun? It will be an incredible experience! All helpers will be very welcome!

Here are a few more examples of Didier's work. I believe that working with Didier would be a fantastic opportunity to understand and learn about the construction of a large-scale balloon project!