The sky’s the limit at the South County Hot Air Balloon Festival, tomorrow through Sunday on the URI athletic fields in South Kingstown.

THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL / Kris Craig

Take flight; or watch others. The 30th annual South County Hot Air Balloon Festival is this weekend in South Kingstown.

Balloons, of course, are the featured attraction. But there are others.

“The balloons are the draw,” says Spencer Seitz, chairman of the festival, presented by the Wakefield Rotary Club. “But the balloons can only go up in the morning and the evening. We would have a lot of disappointed people if there wasn’t stuff in between.”

There’s lots of stuff in between: games, rides and music.

The festival is tomorrow through Sunday on the athletic fields of the University of Rhode Island. There you’ll find lots of land-loving activities — including carnival rides, fireworks, a petting zoo, a crafts show, a firefighters’ muster and a car show — and a very special high-flying one. Several times throughout the weekend, there will be high-wire shows by the Flying Wallendas, a family that has been performing for 80 years.

One of the festival’s special guests, performing tomorrow at 6:45 p.m., is John Cafferty and the Beaver Brown Band, which got its start in Narragansett during the 1970s. Also scheduled for tomorrow beginning at 8:15 p.m. is the first Hot Air Balloon Glow. Tethered balloons, 15 of them, will hover about 150 off the ground, with their flames giving off a glow.

During the Balloon Glow and throughout the weekend, you can go up in these tethered balloons; the suspended rides are offered for $15. And a half hour before dusk and dawn, beginning tomorrow evening and running through Sunday evening, you can take an untethered balloon for a flight.

“The best weather for the balloons is early morning and early evening. You also have less wind that part of the day. And the sun will degrade the fabric of the balloons, so the guys who pilot them aren’t big fans of letting their balloons out in the sun,” says Seitz.There are no reservations for the flights. You must be on the field a half hour before sunset and sunrise. And the price will be determined by the weather conditions and how long the pilot expects to fly, wherever the wind blows them.

“They have a chase car follow the balloon with radio contact. Whey they find a good place to land, they land.”

On Saturday night the special attraction is a fireworks show.

On Sunday, there’s an all-day TriBoro Corvette Club Show.

And throughout the weekend, you can see the Flying Wallendas, who perform about 30 to 40 feet in the air, balancing on wires, chairs and each other. Early in the Wallendas’ performance history, four members fell from the wire in a show in Akron, Ohio, but were not hurt. The only longterm consequence of the incident was the troupe’s altered name: Flying Wallendas.

A newspaper reporter at the show wrote that “The Wallendas fell so gracefully that it seemed as if they were flying.”

The Wallendas don’t perform with a net.

“I wish they would,” says Seitz. “It scares the hell out of me.”

The South County Hot Air Balloon Festival is tomorrow through Sunday on the athletic fields of URI off Route 138 in South Kingstown. The hours are tomorrow, 4 to 10 p.m.; Saturday, 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; and Sunday, 5:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Admission is $10, $3 for those 14 and younger. Parking is free. While there are fees for balloon rides and flights, much of the festival is free: a trout pond, train rides for children and the Flying Wallendas’ shows for all. For a complete schedule of events, visit www.wakefieldrotary.com.