Let's go fly a kite

Saturday 4 September - The Bristol Kite Festival, this isn't your Mary Poppins use a neck tie as a tail on a paper kite, kite flying, this is some serious kite enthusiasm. This was the first year I was able to make it to the Kite festival, which always seemed a less interesting, spin off of the balloon festival, but boy was I wrong. It was a long walk to Ashton Court, then across the golf course, but gazing across the field I could see massive kites hovering above a clump of trees, and when I made it round the trees and looked up the hill I was confronted with a sky full of various kites. There was a field dedicated to the massive, inflatable kites, so large they had to be tethered to vehicles. In another field there was sport kites used and in the main arena, there was a variety of kite events including kite fighting, the history of kites with examples, synchronised kite flying to music, group launches of serpent kites, and themed kites like the birds, butterfly and bee display. It was a really relaxed and calming event, despite the many people and vendors also crowded around the field. My favourite kites were the massive ray shaped kites, that seemed to have their own unique characters as the swam through the sky.