A balloon race for your fundraiser, without the balloons
No litter, no harm to wildlife, and every supporter can follow their balloon live. Virtual Balloon Race is a free WordPress plugin for schools, PTAs, clubs and charities.
The demo race, live
These balloons are flying on real wind right now. They launched three days ago; click one to see its trail.
See the full leaderboard and team standings →
How it works
- Sell entries through your WooCommerce shop. Supporters name their balloon, pick its colour, team and helium strategy, and can add their own logo or launch point.
- Launch at the time you set. Every balloon starts drifting across a live map on real wind data.
- Follow the race on your site: a live map with trails, a leaderboard with search, team standings and “My balloons”.
- Finish at the end time. The balloon furthest from the launch point wins, and everyone is emailed their result.
Made for fundraisers
For supporters
- A live preview of their balloon as they choose
- Track it on the map and leaderboard
- Emails at launch and with the final results
- Names shown as first name and initial
For organisers
- Schedule races, or launch and finish by hand
- Paid extras: helium strategies, launch points, logos
- Optional teams and entry limits
- Refunds and cancellations handled for you
Free and open
- Free to use, licensed under the GPL
- Real wind from Open-Meteo, maps from OpenStreetMap
- No API keys or accounts needed
- First used by Horfield School Association
Download coming soon. Want to run a race? Get in touch.