Bristol International Kite Festival

Saturday 30th & Sunday 31st August 2003

Location: Ashton Court, Bristol
Organised by: Avril Baker

Once again, the Bristol International Kite Festival was a busy and colourful affair, with many kite fliers from around the world converging on Bristol for a weekend of sunshine, socialising and even the odd bit of kiteflying...

Avril Baker did a splendid job organising this event again, which gets bigger and better each year. The local group, Avon Kite Fliers, put on a great show in both arenas with their large selection of kites, and also ran a kite making workshop in the main marquee, for the children. A big thank you to all involved for such a great weekend.

The weather stayed warm and sunny with a light breeze for most of the weekend, and despite the threat of incoming black clouds on both Saturday & Sunday afternoon, it didn't rain. This, and the excellent pre-publicity, helped to bring in many thousands of spectators. The festival was very busy on both days, and the crowds seemed to enjoy all the entertainment laid on for them.

Guest fliers included the Decorators, Flying Squad, Team Flic, Team Flame, Janneke Groen, Phil McConnachie, Collectif Zoone, Johan Hallin, Peter Lynn, Nick James, Martin Lester, Stafford Wallace, Carl & James Robertshaw, Settimo Cielo Aquilonisti, and Dodd Gross.

The auction and meal on Saturday night was very busy, and the long awaited Benson Airbow ("Number One off the Production Line") went for £250. After the auction, we stepped outside to watch the firework display, which was excellent.

Our favourite moment of the festival was the Revolution megateam fly at the bottom corner of the field at about 1pm on Sunday. We flew with seven members of the Flying Squad, then Team Flic joined in, then the Decorators joined in briefly too. There were 16 Rev's flying in formation at one point - lots of fun! (If anyone has any photos of this, please do let us know!)

Again, there was so much to see at this festival that we have two pages of photographs for you to enjoy.

Carl Robertshaw proudly shows off his new van	Avon Kite Fliers photocall	Ron Dell & Dicky Nourse
Avon Kite Fliers' club kites, including the 50 metre long Kite of Hope (centre)
Roly the Whale dwarfs the fliers	GWR & Bristol Kidz kite	Dave Johnson of the AKF helps Janneke Groen with her Sode kite

Guest flyers & kites

Beautiful bol against the Bristol sky	One of the Peter Lynn octopii	Huge lobster
Phil McConnachie waves hello to all back home in Australia	Patterned delta and parafoil flying high	Inflatable eyeballs!
Dragon kite made and flown by Settimo Cielo Aquilonisti kite group from Italy
George Peters' Turtle	Andrew Beattie and Veronica	Hold on to that kite!...
Busy on Saturday...	... Busy on Sunday too	View from a Gemini

Colourful kites

Lots more on Page 2 >