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6th Kennet Valley Kite Festival

Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th July 2002

Location: Henwick Worthy Sports Fields, Thatcham, Newbury, Berkshire
Organised by: Kennet Kite Flyers

We arrived at 10.30am on Saturday to beautiful blue skies and hot sunshine, which lasted all day (give or take a few clouds!) Plenty of spectators turned up as the day went on, to watch the many demonstrations and competitions being held in the arena.

Teams and individuals competed for the 'Newbury Cup' which was held by STACK. There was a good turnout for the competition, which included Team Flame, Echo, Bitter & Twisted, Gemini II, Wind Magic, 2 Can, Robin Smith and Chris Goff, amongst others. Members of the public were invited to vote for their favourite routine. (As soon as we find out the results we will post them here!) The standard of competition was high, however the low wind conditions made it very difficult for some fliers. At least the Newbury crowds should now know what a 360 is!

As well as the competitions, some of the teams did demos in the arena. Evolver showed off their skills again with their Matrix, Dot Matrix & Revolution display. The Kennet Kite Flyers did a traction kite and buggy demo in the main arena, and stacked their collection of 12 Flexifoils together which generated quite a lot of pull!

There were various single line kites dotted around the field- mostly deltas, Rokkakus and kites from the children's workshop. Roy Reed brought some traditional Malaysian kites made of paper and bamboo, and some Indian fighter kites which he made. Carl Robertshaw put up his Delta Serpents later in the day when the wind started to pick up again.

Walking around the field you could also see lots of dual line kites such as the Benson Gemini, Atelier, and Dot Matrix. Brian got his birthday present - a custom made Matrix -and we filmed Carl while he set up the kite and gave us some tuning and flying tips. Roy Broadley let us fly his holographic Rev 1.5 (its first ever flight!) - it flew very well and looked beautiful high in the sky with the sun glinting off it.

We had a great day, relaxing in the sunshine, and the time just flew by. Before we knew it, it was 6.30pm and time to go home... But not before meeting the KKF's new mascot: Molly the kite buggy bunny - see below!


Spot the difference - Roy Broadley's holographic Revolution!		Echo and Wind Magic about to launch for a practice

Stack of 12 Flexifoils belonging to the Kennet Kite Flyers

Stewart Bateman with a couple of his unusual single line kites (Left & Centre - Welsh Knot delta)

Carl Robertshaw launches his Delta Serpents

Delta Serpent flying gracefully over Newbury	Brian's new Matrix takes to the air!

James Robertshaw grins for the camera!	Two large delta kites high in the sky

Children having fun with 'Stomp Rockets'	"The Newbury Kite Sluts" as they like to be known!	Kite bunnying...?