12th Weymouth International Beach Kite Festival

Sunday 5 & Monday 6 May 2002

Bob Cruickshanks with his Mullinium Dome

Location: The Beach, Weymouth, Dorset
Organised by: The Kite Society

We arrived at Weymouth on Friday afternoon, to find there were already people flying kites on the beach. On Friday night a local BBC TV crew did a live outside broadcast on the beach to promote the kite festival. They interviewed the Weymouth promotions manager and also Janneke Groen from Holland.

Saturday, as always, was a "free-flying day", with no scheduled events or displays. However there were plenty of kite fliers out on the beach enjoying the good weather, although the winds were fairly light.

Sunday was a very busy day on the beach. There were many different types of kites being flown, including Malcolm Goodman's Chinese dragon kite. The wind changed direction and strength a great deal throughout the day - around midday the wind was very light but by 4pm it had picked up dramatically! The sun was warm when it came out from behind the clouds, mostly in the late afternoon.

On Sunday night there was a civic reception at the Weymouth Pavilion with the Mayor of Weymouth. Later we were treated to an excellent fireworks display which went off from a barge in Weymouth Bay.

The Flying Squad were on hand demonstrating their skills on both dual and quad line kites throughout the weekend. Avon Kite Flyers put on a colourful display of their club kites and playsails on both Sunday and Monday. There were many giant inflatables to be seen in the skies all weekend, including lizards, octopuses, teddy bears, and even a grasshopper!

Many international guests from Germany, France, Holland, America and Luxembourg attended - including Ron & Marla "Raffle Queen" Miller, Peter Dolphin and of course Janneke Groen.

Monday was not such a busy day, probably due to the poor weather. There was quite a bit of drizzle in the morning, although the weather did clear up towards lunchtime. Still, there seemed to be more single line kites flying on Monday than any other day!

Here we are waving to the Beachcam on Friday afternoon!	Janneke Groen being interviewed on BBC1 Spotlight	Saturday morning - a good time to buggy
Malcolm Goodman's Chinese dragon kite		A selection of inflatable creatures
Andy King & George Webster commentating from the bus	The Flying Squad's Revolution stacks impressed the crowds	The Flying Squad in close formation
Maori Cody and "Lady of the Clouds"	Single line kite in the sunshine	Colourful parafoil with tails
Roy Broadley's holographic kite sparkles in the sunshine	John Huxtable's Red Dragon flies above an 'Angel'	One of Janneke's Sode kites
A busy Weymouth beach

After dark at the Weymouth Pavilion

Links:

Weymouth Kite Festival Report 2001

Weymouth Beach Webcam - updated every 2 minutes in daylight hours!

Weymouth Harbour Webcam