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By Kirsty, March 15, 2013 6:32 pm

Since 1985 Comic Relief has been making the nation chuckle to raise funds for those who need it in Africa and right here in the UK.

Virgin Balloon Flights HQ staff have pledged their support by making donations and donning their best celebrity clobber in a past and present pop stars day!

We’ve had some of the biggest names in music history in the office and our company pooch, Pomeranian Cookie, took part sporting a Virgin red wig!

Can you spot… Kiss? Ben’s Gene Simmons ensemble was a lunch time wonder made of bin bags and foil, with a bit of help from retro Madonna and ‘Virgin’ marketer Kirsty painting his face.

Amy Winehouse was traditionally beehive and eyeliner and Lynsay even managed to recreate the Amy tattoos one by one. Natalie added some ‘zig-a-zig-ah’ with her Melanie C outfit and Sophie’s leopard print and lipstick with that trademark Jessie J hair meant she was in charge of collecting the ‘Money, Money, Money’.

Sat ‘Jammin’ on the VBF sofa was Bob Marley AKA head of comms and marketing Alex, while Shaun was in the ‘Right Place Right Time’ as the lovely Olly Murs. No pop star set would be complete without a serenade from Michael Buble; and Wayne did just that, suit and all!

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By Jade, November 2, 2012 6:07 pm

This year’s Virgin ‘Stars of the Year’ event brought together 31 brilliant individuals from different Virgin companies across the globe to celebrate their hard work and outstanding achievements. We caught up with our ‘Star of the Year’, operations technician Roger Vint, to get some more inside details of what went on at one of the best Virgin events of the year.

Roger went to the evening – held at Sam and Holly Branson’s house – with his wife Sue. He told us:

When I found out I had been voted a ‘Star of the Year’, I was somewhat suprised and a little shocked but once over the initial suprise, I was delighted and extremely excited.

We didn’t see much of the house but the grounds were very remote and lovely. On arrival, we were greeted with some fancy cocktails, a few minutes later Richard opened up the conservatory (his words!) big enough to hold 150 people. The decoration was first-class, all very glamorous and elegant but still with a homely feel as there was a lit log fire – it was lovely!

We spoke to a lot of people throughout the night; fellow guests and even some Virgin Directors who were all very attentive, all going out of their way to look after us.  Three directors in particular spent considerable time with us; Matt, the HR Director of Virgin Money, Matthew Donaghy, HR Director of Virgin Trains and the CEO of Virgin Group. When we met Richard himself, he was very relaxed and chatty.

We all sat down for dinner and the food was amazing, we enjoyed  Beef Wellington and Salmon baked in Salt. We then had the speeches presented by Richard and his daughter Holly along with other senior Virgin group members. After that, we all had photos with Richard before the Disco began. It was a great evening. All in all, a once in a lifetime experience.

Sounds like it was a brilliant evening for everyone. Congratulations Roger and all the Stars of the Year!

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By Alex, August 21, 2012 3:22 pm

We had a fantastic first visit to V Festival at Hylands Park in Essex where we tethered a balloon at the weekend and what a scorcher it was!

Guests from the brilliant Virgin Media Louder Lounge enjoyed rides in the blazing sun and we rubbed shoulders with celebrities including actor Billy Piper, singer Sophie Ellis Bexter, actor Ralph Little and boy band One Direction, who were all at the event.

We also provided some additional entertainment for the crowd who could see our balloon from the main stage, bobbing away to music from the likes of Tom Jones and Snow Patrol. Our balloon looked particularly spectacular as it lit up in the dusky gloom.

It was a fantastic way to mark 25 years since Sir Richard Branson and co-pilot Per Lindstrand did the first transatlantic balloon flight – making Virgin synonymous with hot ballooning forevermore.

Thanks to everyone who flew with us, who tweeted us and the Virgin Media team who made us feel so welcome.

If you would like to experience a hot air balloon ride over Essex visit our website.

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By Kirsty, February 27, 2012 12:40 pm

Virgin London Marathon together with Virgin Money Giving have teamed up to create a bit of fun for Marathon runners in the form of Marathon News TV.

Last week runners of the marathon were sent a link to create a news piece simply by filling in their details, such fun! Being a good sport, Virgin Balloon Flights marathon runner, freelance designer Adam Fleetwood got his three minutes of fame, which you can watch by following this link:

http://www.marathonnewstv.com/?f=Adam%20&l=Fleetwood&v=AdamFleetwood&ch=Virgin%20Unite&n=1

You can help support our chosen charity Birmingham Children’s Hospital by sponsoring Adam on his Virgin Money Giving Page, every penny counts! You can also keep up to date with his training and fundraising on our blog.

Virgin Balloon Flights fly from over 100 launch sites in England, Scotland and Wales from as little as £89 per person, for further information, please call 0844 8448080 or visit virginballoonflights.co.uk

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By Alex, December 19, 2011 3:10 pm

Well, the festive season has landed and 2011 has simply flown by here at Virgin Balloon Flights. (New Year’s resolution: no more balloon puns!).

It’s been a fantastic 12 months with thousands of new airborne adventurers, fantastic personal achievements by staff and charity campaigns galore! Enjoy some of our highlights in pictures below.

January

Steve Dubois of SteveOnTheRun.co.uk,  from Virgin Media in Cambridge, visited Virgin Balloon Flights HQ for a training run with our Eve (who ran a half marathon this year for Hope Hope) and Sue as part of his preparation for the Virgin London Marathon. Entrepreneur Mark Pearson, of MyVoucherCodes.co.uk fame, told us about his unforgettable balloon flight in Surrey the previous season.

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By Kirsty, December 15, 2011 6:42 pm

“As the Virgin Unite Insider for Virgin Balloon Flights, the opportunities to use ‘business as a force for good’ are endless. When the chance of going to South Africa with Sir Richard Branson and his connection trip guests came my way courtesy of Virgin Unite, of course I grabbed it by the (Buffalo) horns and got packing!

A jam packed schedule allowed me to meet some of the most inspiring, motivated and dedicated people I’ve met in my lifetime; The Branson Centre Entrepreneurs, Jean Oelwang (The CEO of Virgin Unite), Dr Taddy Blecher (a pioneer of the free education movement in South Africa) and of course Sir Richard himself alongside his business mogul guests.

After a long flight with the superb Virgin Atlantic, a hotel check in and a stimulating meet and greet, I accompanied Jean, the connection trip guests and the Virgin Unite team to Newtown arriving at the Sophiatown Restaurant where we were delighted by African cuisine and guest speaker Dr Taddy Blecher. Post lunch we marvelled at Inner City Craft Initiatives and met ‘Prince’ an up and coming South African jeweller who designed & created the most interesting pieces of ‘junk’ jewellery. Who can resist a bracelet made out of a fork?!

From here we crossed townships to Constitution Hill. By far one of Johannesburg’s most moving sights. Originally a fort during the Boer War it later became an infamous prison housing many of South Africa’s most well-known resistance leaders and is now home to the Constitutional Court of South Africa. After a quick change we headed off to the Orient Restaurant and chatted over exquisite Chinese food before listening to more inspiring guest speakers.

Early the next morning guests enjoyed breakfast with Sir Richard before we travelled to Mzansi Designers Studio to meet Lesego Malatsi (a previous Branson centre entrepreneur) and saw his fashion house in full swing. We were later treated to seeing his first boutique shop in Maponya Mall too. We also experienced another previous Branson Centre entrepreneurs thriving business in Diepkloof, Soweto. A recycling plant started by Tshepo Nawane.

Inspired once more by the sheer determination and drive to create employment for local communities and to start businesses from scratch, we chatted to both Lesego and Tshepo en route to the grand opening of the Virgin Active Gym in Maponya. Greeted with steel drums, stilt walkers and Sir Richard, this feast of colour and sound gave the gym opening the atmosphere it most definitely deserved.

Departing the swanky new gym we lunched at Velo and chatted with Marious Minnie, the CEO of Southpoint and a partner and investor of the Branson Centre (BC) before crossing over to the BC to offer mentoring to the current entrepreneurs.

The pièce de résistance of the day was of course the Screw Business As Usual booklaunch at ‘Randlords’ where Richard spoke about his book alongside African children’s choirs and pure cultured entertainment. You can see my video montage of the #SBAU book launch here on our YouTube page.

After supper and wine back at the hotel with Richard and guests, it was off to bed before an early start to wave off the guests, Richard and Jean to Ulusaba for the next step of their trip. You can see Richards Blog about their game drive here. I spent my last day in South Africa with some of the Virgin Media Pioneers sightseeing and taking in some of South Africa’s most beautiful animals.

THANK YOU to Virgin Unite, Sir Richard, Jean and the rest of the team for the most amazing experience of my life. A trip I will treasure in my heart forever.”

Kirsty x

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By Alex, November 18, 2011 1:07 pm

I headed to London on Wednesday for the Virgin Social Marathon with a whopping 20 #FirstTimes still to complete in order to get the big 50 for Virgin Unite.

Thanks to the help of the brilliant Virgin Balloon Flights team, our fantastic colleagues from other Virgin businesses, wonderful customers and a large slice of luck, I did it!

I worked on a train (juice trolley duty with Virgin Trains), did a Sudoku (eventually!), went busking, roller  bladed (like Bambi on ice),  visited the Tate Modern, went on a motorbike ride (with Rhys from Virgin Limobikes), learned to make tasty Hollandaise and fed flamingos (not Hollandaise!) at the Roof Gardens, swam in a lake, had my hair coloured and eyebrows plucked, played poker (responsibly online with Virgin Games), ate dragon fruit, ate jellied eels (not recommended). Facebooked @ Facebook HQ and tweeted ‘a poem’.

A rickshaw ride and frogs legs eluded me, but were replaced with winkles and pickled herring and being an impromptu newspaper street seller. We also threw in a celebrity encounter by meeting former MP Lembit Opik of ‘I’m a Celebrity Fame’.

I finished off by telling Sir Richard Branson a joke (via Twitter) ‘What do you call a nun on a treadmill?’ A Virgin Active. He replied ‘Haha! Great effort & well done for your 50 #FirstTimes‘

What a day!

Thanks to everyone who helped with this weird and wonderful charity challenge including Facebook and Virgin.com plus all those who have sponsored me. Hopefully, we’ll creep to the £1,000 including gift aid (sponsor me here) and then it’s over to you Virgin Unite!

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By Alex, August 12, 2011 5:23 pm

Virgin Balloon Flights hosted a sensational performance by British soul diva Beverley Knight in a hot air balloon during the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta.

Beverley’s session and interview were filmed for Virgin Red Room – Virgin.com’s online music show presented by Nissan Juke – and are now online to view here.

Her Virgin balloon took off with scores of other balloons from Bristol’s Ashton Court flew right across the city and landed an hour and twenty minutes later near Doynton, to the east.

Beverley performed forthcoming single Cuddly Toy, originally released by Roachford in 1988, from from her 7^th studio album ‘Soul UK’ produced by Grammy Award Winner Martin Terefe (James Morrison, Jason Mraz) and Future Cut (Beyonce, Lily Allen). Soul UK was released last month to widespread critical acclaim and was the week’s highest new entry on the UK album chart.

The album is a tribute to British artists who have influenced Beverley and features interpretations of songs by the likes of Soul II Soul, Omar and Jamiroqui.

During the flight Beverley described the ballooning experience to her followers on Twitter:

‘I cannot even begin to tell you how thrilling this is! @virginredroom virginballoons. Interview with @HenryOnAMission now. Xxxx’

‘Thank you @virginredroom @HenryOnAMission@VirginBalloons for making a dream come true! Xxxxx During the flight Beverley described the experience for her followers on Twitter.’

Back on the ground, Beverley said she had thoroughly enjoyed her visit to the fiesta and especially the balloon flight itself.

She said: “I enjoyed every minute of the flight and really didn’t want it to end. It was nothing like I thought it would be because I expected to hear the wind and for it to be bumpier, but it was smooth, silent and so clear up there. I would love to do it all again tomorrow,” she added.

“It was an amazing place to perform. When I was singing the sound just disappeared into the air, so you really had to listen and focus.

“Mark the pilot and the Virgin Balloon Flights crew were wonderful. They explained everything so lucidly that you always knew what was happening and we landed upright which was perfect.”

Virgin Balloon Flights pilot Mark Simmons, from nearby Melksham, is a regular participant at the famous balloon event.

He said: “Flying in the Bristol balloon fiesta is always fantastic and floating skywards at 1,000 feet with Beverley singing in the basket of our balloon was amazing. She’s an incredible performer and seemed to really enjoy the flight. It was an experience none of us will forget.”

To book a balloon flight over Bristol or beyond with Mark and the team visit the Virgin Balloon Flights website.

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By Alex, August 3, 2011 11:40 am

We’re always saying how magical it is to fly in a hot air balloon is so it was quite fitting when TV illusionist Derren Brown joined us for a sky-high sightseeing tour.

Derren, who has performed various stage shows, television specials and series such as Trick or Treat,  took a hot air balloon ride from Henley-on-Thames on Saturday  evening.

Derren Brown tweets in our Virgin balloon

Flying with pilot Mark Shemilt and eventually landing in Reading, Derren described the balloon flight as a ‘totally dreamy’ experience.

“I had no idea what to expect and the whole thing was fantastic. Utterly serene, totally dreamy, and even a couple who were nervous beforehand loved the whole thing. Thank you for a terrific evening,” he said.

Derren tweeted several times during the flight, including when they drifted over Uri Geller’s house, and after a comfortable landing he praised Mark for his piloting skills.

Mark said: “I’m delighted Derren enjoyed the flight. It was quite funny as other passengers gradually realised who he was and started nudging each other. He chatted to everyone and told us about his new show. It was a pleasure to meet him.”

Visit Derren Brown’s Blog or follow Derren on Twitter.

Book your own magical hot air balloon ride here