Sam the Balloon Man Captured Imaginations at the Nashville Fair

On a rainy day at the Nashville Fairgrounds, one artist’s exhibit was shining brightly.  

Fairgoers stay dry with umbrellas while waiting in line for funnel cakes. The bad weather was caused by the remnants of Hurricane Francine.

The second to last day of the Nashville Fair was crashed by rainstorms, but that didn’t stop Sam Cremeens, known as Sam the Balloon Man, from displaying his art inside of the Expo center. 

Cremeens inflates a balloon to builds a guitar, so he can have an instrument while posing with his band of balloon animals.

Cremeens has been at the Nashville Fair for the last three years but has been practicing balloon art for 21 years.  

“He’s one of the funniest and most personable characters you’ll meet,” said Katie Radel, the media director for the fair.  

Cremeens occupied a fenced-in patch of turf in the Expo center featuring moving sculptural balloon recreations of many of the fair’s most popular attractions, including pig racing.   

Cremeens shows the moving rail track of the racing pigs sculpture to two intrigued children and their family who’ve just come in from the rain. "There's so many positive reactions," Creemens said. "I attribute that to why I still look so young.”

“I love that I get to take the ideas that are in my head and make them into real life. Just bring them out, put them in 3D,” said Cremeens.  

His designs were eye-catching.  

One was an eight-foot tall Ferris wheel that rotated.  

Another was a full-sized car that actually drove. 

Cremeens "changes a tire" on his driving balloon car sculpture. “I like the temporal nature of the balloon art,” said Cremeens. “Most artists don’t get to see the entire lifespan of their artwork.”

“I’ve never seen that before,” said Amaya Henry, a fairgoer who came inside to avoid the rain. 

Cremeens is self-taught.  

After facing health problems from working in a Silica mine for 17 years, he knew he needed a career change.  

His passion for balloon art started with an ADHD binge in a Walmart.  

“I saw a pack of balloons with a little yellow pump and just the worst instructions ever,” Cremeens said. “I’m like, ‘this looks like fun!’”  

Cremeens looks over his work, which includes an 8-foot rotating Ferris wheel, a pig race scene, fair swings, a giant balloon dog, a moveable balloon car and a bluegrass balloon animal band.

Since then, Cremeens has traveled around the country teaching and building balloon sculptures for fairs, weddings, conventions, and all sorts of events.  

And he doesn't plan on stopping anytime soon.

Sam the Balloon Man poses with his sculpture of an animal bluegrass band in Expo Three of the Nashville Fairgrounds.

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This Photo Story was done by Kyle Patton