Streatham Common Kite Day

Sunday 21st April 2002

Location: Streatham Common
Organised by: Bob Colover

The 5th Streatham Common Kite Day was a hot, sunny and windy day. Around 1500 people attended the Kite Day, making it the most successful so far. The kite making workshop quickly ran out of materials, and Dunstable Kites had sold out of children's kites by 4pm.

Some of the most memorable highlights of the day were watching Team Adrenalize demonstrate man-lifting using a stack of 10-foot Flexifoils, and a tethered flyer. He reached such heights off the ground that there were gasps of amazement and awe from the watching crowds!

Carl and James Robertshaw flew various ballet routines to music, swapping between custom Revolutions, Dot Matrix and Matrix kites mid-routine. They should be commended for continuing flying one of their routines...
A single line kite strayed into the arena and was cut by Carl's kite, its flyer then walked into the arena to reel the remaining line in, ignoring shouts that he was in the way. Next, a large inflatable kite and its two pilot kites came down in the arena, causing an obstruction to the flyers. Then a parachuting teddy bear flew directly into their flight path, with a girl running behind it. She ran directly in front of Carl & James who were at that point trying to execute a near-ground pass... then she stayed in the middle of the field, completely oblivious to the fact that she was in the way! Well done Carl & James for keeping going!

Just after 4pm a helicopter was heard overhead. It was the Air Ambulance trying to land on the Common! After the pilot realised that there were kites in his flight path, the helicopter banked sharply, circled a couple of times then landed in an adjacent basketball court - with his rotor blades just feet away from the sides! A few minutes later, after a corner of the Common had been cleared of kitefliers, the pilot took off again and landed on the Common itself. It was incredible to watch the skill of the pilot, gently guiding the helicopter down with so many people and hazards around.

Later in the afternoon, Veronica the octopus took to the skies- without Andrew Beattie as he was on a trip abroad. She flew quite happily in the breeze, and watching her was a nice way to end a fantastic kite-flying day.

Links:

Festival Report 2001

Festival Report 2000

Team Adrenalize website

Carl Robertshaw's KiteStudio

Dunstable Kites Shop Review

Dunstable Kites website