In photos: Water-balloon warriors cool off at the Battle of the Bywater

Photo by Hayley Benton

Once again, the summer solstice brought out brigades of water-balloon warriors, gathered to slather on sunscreen, paint their faces and hurdle red-and-blue balloons.

The fourth annual Battle of the Bywater was packed with what may be “the biggest crowd we have ever had,” wrote the owners of the bar on Facebook — with cars lined up and down Riverside Drive (more so than usual).

With food from Metal Mike’s Culinary Busking, music from Piper Jones and his Merry Band and more than 5,000 water balloons piled into four canoes on opposite ends of the field — the game was on for the 2015 battle.

At 3 p.m., the balloon-war began with the banging of a drum, the humming of bagpipes, the haze of smoke and the splashing of balloons.

Check out photos of the event here:

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About Hayley Benton
Current freelance journalist and artist. Former culture/entertainment reporter at the Asheville Citizen-Times and former news reporter at Mountain Xpress. Also a coffee drinker, bad photographer, teller of stupid jokes and maker-upper of words. I can be reached at hayleyebenton [at] gmail.com. Follow me @HayleyTweeet

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