May 4th-5th Beverley Kite Festival
The field at Beverley is a fabulous place to fly but we always wind up
with the same problem as a team. How do you get enough space to fly in?
We tried very hard to place the team in an empty spot and most people
were very nice. But all the time we were flying we had to dodge other
kites and fliers which made doing anything really spectacular very
difficult. Under these conditions the actual flying was very good
indeed.
May 20th 23rd The 1st Brean Training Holiday even through rain and howling gales this was a magical time. We got close to sorting out who does what in the arena and flew really well with the tails. We even had a go one night with lighted kites. Every day we could we put up the arena and started up the music and gave the routine a go. We took video of this and then worked out what went wrong with the performance. By the last day we where all quite tired and we wound up with Alan Poxon sitting in the van flying out through the door on the last day.
May
26th Allestree Gala DayAlways a difficult site. This time we managed to put up a little bit of barrier tape to try to stop folks walking through The area we were flying in. We did several shows during the day. But the day was spoiled by someone running over one of my prototypes deliberately. We flew well in difficult wind and decided that we wouldn't be doing this event again. the Mayor was happy with his photos and we where happy not to be coming back again.
June 1st Warwickshire County
Fair
We have always Produced a good show at Warwick and this was no exception
the flying was positive and accurate. We gave them three displays during
the day. The middle one was a peach, with the rolls in formation, and
the positioning to the music, as near perfect as we have ever managed.
We gave them a show with the Big Softie Foils which went down very well.
In all we used most of the kites we have at least once during the day.
Many thanks to everyone for making us so welcome.
June 15th Brinsley Carnival
Another good performance by the team the arena had to be stretched a
little but everything else was fine. The PA required me to turn up the
volume on my calls a bit. But the effect, was to get us moving well
together. As everyone could feel the beat.
June 21st Trowell Summer Extravaganza
This is the lowest wind event we have ever done and we had to grab every
possible Scrap of wind to fly at all. Chris resorted to an indoor Kite.
But the team actually managed to fly a short routine. None of our wind
meters was registering anything at all.
July 5th Bulkington Carnival
This was a really nice event we where asked to use only soft soled shoes
as our arena included the cricket square. We set up early and practiced
a bit but it all seemed very quiet. Then we did our first show and as we
did the entrance to the park filled with people. The carnival had
arrived just in time to see all four kites moving in formation. We did
another show later on and performed very well the slow passes with the
Hawaiian's were nearly stationary when turned to starburst up. A nice
day with nice people.
July 13th
Biddulph Kite Day
I have never crashed out and made so many mistakes in one day I
even managed to pick up one of the banner poles with my Hawaiian and carry it
around for a while.
We did two performances the first was a bit rough as I not only
took off my own pole but crashed out on my multifly. Graham
led very well and without any drama's but the day was marred by a
small child getting run over, crossing over the road to get to the site. Lovely
people (mostly) and very keen kite fliers. Our skill was appreciated and we
improved on the second show. We held on to formations even when we had
to jump outside the arena. The five on a dice was particularly good.
August
6th Inside Out at BaxterlyWe were asked by Lloyd Kirton to do a section of a show for Inside out a BBC Midlands production. Graham organised us so we met together at Charity Farm Baxterly. The BBC crew were surprised to find us all set up to fly as the wind meter was registering 1.8mph. They asked to see a bit of stick practice and we obliged and Graham did a really nice interview explaining how stick practice started, to help us be in the right place, without crashing out all the time, in a big tangle. We then flew for about an hour before they got what they needed and I worked out that we could easily do a refuel landing for them to film which they did. We saw the resulting bit of video from this a bit later and I have to say we were all quite pleased with the outcome.
August
17th Coventry Kite FestivalHurricane took the Coventry cup in virtually no wind with a blistering display of skill. Beating some very stiff opposition
In virtually no wind the team managed to stay in the air for about 15 mins and we were all close to collapse when we came off the field Alan B threw his hat away fell flat on his back and called for resuscitation we all poured water over each other to get cool afterwards it may not have been beautiful but technically it was a superb display in impossible conditions.
I did the PA for the event and I had a lot of difficulty as we had Four camera teams at the event. Inside out, Midlands Today, Coventry leisure services and Ronald Macdonald TV (scary guy). This Coventry festival will IMHO take a lot of effort to beat as Lloyd Kirton was outstanding as the kite liaison. The new Layout of the festival will be a blueprint for future events. Many thanks to Coventry Leisure Services for a great weekend.
August
30th Chris Head 25th Wedding Anniversary near Stowe on the WoldI have this picture as my desktop on my computer as it reminds me of a wonderful 2 days spent with Chris & Sarah and their family and friends. The Marquee, the stage, everyone performing great music during the day. Kafuffle performing magical music in the evening. Loads of food and drink I even got a couple of jam sessions in with Chris's kids. Then he wraps up the whole thing with a firework display that was jaw dropping. The team performance was up to the very best and audience enjoyed it. I will remember this weekend forever.
September 6th Rushcliffe Night display
When we were asked to do a lighted display for the Saturday night at
Rushcliffe we jumped at the chance we got Mike Sherwood of Mikes lights
to add his delta's to the display and we soon had two kites up 200ft
giving a great show. Graham got out the El-Macho's but there was not
enough wind to get them flying properly. We decided to purchase a delta
for the team, in case we came across the same problem again.
Dave Salmon left end team Leader Sky Symphony