Sheffield Kite Festival 2004

Graves Park, Sheffield - 31st July & 1st August 2004

Well this is the first 'proper' kite festival in Sheffield - apart from the Sheffield Kite Fliers Open days of course! The whole Sheffield Kite Festival came from a promotions company, KC Promotions, who hosted a Balloon Festival last year. They had asked Wigsley Wings to come a provide the kites in the arena and provided a fun fair on site as well. Once we at Sheffield Kite Fliers found out about the existence of the festival we arranged to be present at the event - partly to fly and promote traction/power kiting and partly to advertise ourselves to the public.

Saturday

I turned up at Graves Park around 11:00 to help in setting the SKF stall near the arena - our first problem was that we didn't have a tent - so a bit of clever messing with a Leading Edge Inflatable Surf Kite (a Naish Boxer I believe...) gave us an acceptable shelter for the day. Various kites got attached to poles to decorate the area around our stand. And then we sat and waited. Our main problem was that we had no wind. Almost none at all. And the wind we did have seemed to be in different directions. Paul flew his 10.5 Blade III on some grass near us, I (tried!) to fly the Custom Revolution 1.5 SUL. And over in the main arena nothing was happening. Not one kite was staying in the sky. Wandering over (and working out how to get past the security fence!) I had a nice chat with Doug from Wigsley Wings who was more than happy for us to fly in the arena. So we moved Paul's Blade over along with the Revolution. I guess Paul managed to fly the Blade OK (I couldn't see), but I was having real difficulties with the Revolution - I think the problems with the sail (much too baggy) decreased it's low wind performance. So I moved onto a shorter line length (approx. 3m I think) which worked better - but was very hard work. And so the afternoon passed..... Graham Lockwood somehow managed some multi kite flying in very little wind - how he actually managed that is beyond me!

It was like I had never flown a kite before - always getting nasty line tangles, crashing the kite, etc. And to top it off whilst picking the kite up I slipped, took a step back and..... stood on a spar of the Revolution. Which gave a worrying 'crack' sound. Which messed up my flying for the rest of the day as I had really broken the spar (Non of the kite traders had a Revolution 1.5 SUL spar either. Oh dear).

We did have some good chats with various other kite fliers from Midland Kites Fliers and Wigsley Wings as well as some interested members of the public - but generally all of us were simply sat around doing not much kite flying.

Sunday

I was late on Sunday due to some family commitments - but upon arriving (around 3:00pm if anybody is interested!) I noticed 2 things; 1) Lots more people than on the Saturday, and 2) No wind. We had decided on Saturday that we wouldn't have a stall as it simply wasn't worth doing, so we had set up on one side of the arena. And again the afternoon was spent sitting around. I had more success with the Revolution by borrowing a spar from the vertical's off the Revolution 1.5 to replace the damaged one, and swapping back to the original Revolution sail rather than mine. A chap was flying with an Enigma quad line kite (a custom version of David Davies Sky Dancer) which was performing much better than my Revolution (as well as being a fantastic sail design) and was often the only kite flying.

Some other members of Sheffield Kite Fliers flew various traction kites, but none of the large inflatable single line kites worked, and even the kite arch was mostly lying on the grass.

It was a real pity that the wind was so low on Sunday - there were so many people sat around watching us do, well, nothing much really it would have been great to be able to put on proper displays. When it got to about 5:30 we all started packing up - as nothing was going to improve.

So was it worth it?

Yes, but only just!

Apart from the lack of wind - which is simply one of those things - there were a number of things that could (shall we say) be better:

1. The location in Graves Park wasn't very good - tree lined on 3 sides, bounded by a hedge on the fourth. It's a very tricky location to fly generally (I should know I have tried it!). So not a good place for kites!
2. The Fun Fair - it's all very well have a fun fair, but right next to the arena? The noise of the different PA systems on the rides mingling together with the sound form the Arena PA system just ends up making a noise.
3. Paying to get in was not on - I believe Kite Festivals should be free. After all the sky is free, the air is free - so why should anybody pay to get up close to the kites? Paying for entry to a Fun Fair - why not? But to the whole festival? No way.....
4. Arena PA - Often I was closer to a Arena speaker stack than anything else, but I could hear more form the Fun Fair! Maybe I was simply in the wrong place? Or maybe the speaker arrangement wasn't very good?
5. Security/Kite Organization - there were no checks on entering the arena - not even badges to say that we should be in there. Normally you have to say who you are and what club you are part of - here nothing.

At the end of the day this was a commercial venture to make money - which is fine of course - but it was mainly a fun fair with the promise of kites attached. Not really a real kite festival!

So next time a better location, separate the kites and the fun fair and please please make the kite bit free (charge what you like for the fun fair). Oh yes more wind!