Indy 500 Balloon Release Canceled!

By Chandler Bryant, ABAS Conservation Chair

This year, 2022, will mark the third consecutive year without a long-time Indy 500 race day tradition, a massive balloon release consisting of thousands of helium-filled latex balloons. For the past 2 years, Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS) has not done the balloon release due to COVID and reduced guest capacity. In 2020, a coalition of environmental organizations across Indiana, including ABAS, reached out to IMS to see if we could support environmental sustainability initiatives at the track. The balloon release tradition was a low-hanging fruit that the coalition desperately wanted to end. When the coalition met with IMS we were very excited to hear that ending the tradition was on their radar, as well as several other environmental initiatives. Through numerous zoom meetings, several on-site visits, and the stellar work done by IMS executives and support staff, we were able to accomplish a lot. ABAS and the associated Light Out Indy committee members were able to visit IMS and talk about the Lights Out program and other bird-specific initiatives that IMS could take on to improve bird mortality issues around the Speedway. Most importantly, it seems our meetings were impactful and taken to heart by IMS. In 2021, IMS was awarded a certification from the Council for Responsible Sport (the first speedway to earn such a certification), in part due to the work of the environmental coalition of organizations across the state.

On April 20th, 2022, IMS announced it would be suspending the balloon release indefinitely. ABAS is thrilled to hear this announcement and we look forward to working with IMS on sustainability initiatives in the future, especially those that involve birds.

As background information you can read A Plea to Change Traditions at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway which ABAS published in our March April 2021 newsletter, LifeLines. This describes some of the harm to birds from balloon releases. We are grateful that our voice and the voices of many other environmental organizations were met with swift action by IMS.

Cattle Egret photo courtesy of Pam Bedsole.