Angry Birds hot air balloon to debut in Taiwan

Taipei, May 31 (CNA) A hot air balloon featuring the global smash computer game Angry Birds will make its world debut in eastern Taiwan at a hot air balloon festival, the event organizers said Friday.

The idea of "a huge red bird truly flying in the sky" will finally come true at the two-month Taiwan Balloon Festival, set to open the following day and run until Aug. 11, said the Taitung county government, which is organizing the event.

However, the nearly 25-meter high balloon, made with some 2.5 kilometer of nylon fabric and 24 kilometer of thread will only stay in Taiwan until June 25, before making another stop in Germany, the government said.

Benedict Savio, chief executive officer of Global Media Box, which owns the balloon, is leading a team to Taiwan that will pilot the balloon, the organizers said.

The volume of the balloon is nearly 3,000 cubic meters, "enough to contain approximately half-a-million fist-sized Angry Birds," according to the maker, Cameron Balloons.

The balloon will be taken to Germany in August, followed by stops in Italy, the United States and Thailand during a two-year world tour, the organizers said.

Released in 2009, Angry Birds is a video game franchise created by Finnish computer game developer Rovio Entertainment. It has had over 1.7 billion downloads across all platforms, from smartphones to tablets and personal computers.

(By James Lee)ENDITEM/J