1999 was not our best year for attending festivals - the combination
of saving up, moving house, and all that domestic stuff, prevented us
from attending as many festivals as in previous years. However we did
get to go to a few festivals in the UK, and here are the photos to prove
it!
Blackheath Easter Kite Festival April 1999
London Kite Festival June 1999
2nd Cleethorpes Kite Festival August 1999
Berrow Kite & Buggy
Festival September 1999 - Eight days of reports, photographs
and fun from Berrow 1999.
Blackheath Easter Kite Festival: Sunday 4th -
Monday 5th April 1999
This photo was taken at the Blackheath - Easter 99 Festival on the
Sunday. It turned out to be rather a grey day, a bit of sunshine peeking
out here and there. Still, the kite community was out in force, displaying
everything from single liners to power kites. One stallholder was proudly
displaying his new Flexifoil Blade, from the safety of his van. Rokkaku
fights kept the crowds amused, and there was even a display of kite
buggying in the rather cramped arena.
On Monday morning, Peter Mirkovic (maker of Predator power kites),
Mark Kingshott (world record holding buggier) and Chris Croft (Blackheath
PA Commentator) appeared on The Big Breakfast, Channel 4, in a feature
called "Join My Club", with Chris trying desperately to buggy
in a 100 foot square area between some buildings, while Mark and Peter
looked nervous whilst being interrogated in the studio, by a bloke who
obviously thought that the sight of grown men flying kites was something
quite bizarre! Perhaps things weren't helped by Chris showing his array
of membership cards for various kite clubs, one of which having the
unfortunate moniker of Kent Kite Klub (KKK). Anyway I'm sure that the
TV performance resulted in a great many more people turning up at Blackheath
on the Bank Holiday Monday, but we had to stay at home and pack - we
moved house on the Wednesday!
Here are a couple of the wonderful Rokkaku kites that were on display,
fighting high above the skies of Blackheath.
East London Kite Festival - Hackney Marshes,
London: Saturday 26th - Sunday 27th June 1999
This was a scorcher of a day - we arrived on the Saturday, around 10am,
yet it was already swelteringly hot and sunny and promised to be an
excellent day! We set up our cabana tent next to the main arena and
were not disappointed! Lots of excellent flying went on, not least by
the Robertshaw brothers, who seem to excel in every event they turn
their hands to! Carl Robertshaw had his custom Rokkakus on display,
as well as all sorts of other very artistic kites at his own stall.
There didn't seem to be as many traders as in previous years, and as
the organisers had not received much money from the local council, they
could not afford a St Johns Ambulance to be present (shame, as I got
a nasty bit of line burn on my leg - thanks to the lady who donated
her Germolene!). Still, they managed to set up a space-age tent with
laptop computers, and all sorts of fancy wizardry to link their custom
Rev kites loaded with meteorological equipment, to a local art gallery,
for a bit of "performance art". However one bonus was that
parking (for the first time for years!) was only one pound to get on
the field- hurrah! No more lugging equipment from the car park!
The 2nd Cleethorpes Kite Festival, Cleethorpes,
Lincolnshire: Saturday 21st - Sunday 22nd August 1999
Well, we couldn't miss this one .. driving back from Scarborough one
beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon (as you do), we decided to take a little
detour from the monotonous trip back to London, and head off towards
Cleethorpes, near Grimsby. Oh look, there "just happens" to
be a kite festival there that day...
After spending about half an hour trying to get parked, we eventually
found a convenient side street and managed to get ourselves and kites
down onto the beach. The beach itself was quite muddy but there were
nice dry bits to fly in - we found a spot where we could watch the massive
one-liners flying near the edge of the beach, yet still have space to
fly our Rev I's.
Berrow Kite & Buggy Festival: Saturday 18th September - Saturday
25th September 1999
Full 8 Day Report & Photos
here.
