Beverley Kite and Garden Festival 2000

30 April & 1 May 2000

While the rest of the world seemed to be heading off to Weymouth for the weekend, we thought we would be different and visit one of the north's kite festivals. We had visited Beverley kite festival, near Hull, two years previously and thought it was about time that we attended again. Lured by the promise of a section set aside for British Buggy Club members, we stopped off on our journey home from Scarborough in search of buggy fun. Unfortunately this was not to be!

Arrived at 11am on Sunday to find lovely blue skies, a 5-10mph wind ... and polo ponies occupying the space reserved for the kite buggies! After talking to some other disgruntled kite fliers, we discovered that it was apparently "too wet" for the kite buggies, as they would "make too much of a mess of the field". Kite fliers were restricted to flying at the edge of the racecourse, and were even prevented from putting large kites up (presumably so that the ponies wouldn't get scared).

Now this may all sound a bit negative, but it was very disappointing to turn up at a supposedly well organised kite festival and find the access restricted in this way. Fortunately kite fliers were admitted to the event for free (non- kite fliers had to pay a couple of quid to get in), but it didn't really make up for the fact that no buggying was allowed when this had specifically been advertised.

However, there were quite a few kite groups, traders, and people flying kites around the racecourse. The sunshine persuaded us to stick around for a little while and take some photographs, which you can see below. Click on any image to see a larger version.