Dieppe Kite Festival 2014 – France

The Dieppe Kite Festival is LEGEN – wait for it – DARY!

The Flying Squad have been visitors to the festival for a number of years and look forward to returning with eager anticipation.  This year was no different.  The festival is on an epic scale and too big to cover all of it here so we will just tell you about the sport kite flying at the the Chateau end of the field.

Dieppe Kite Festival 2014 Continue reading

Dunstable

Sun Burst

Sun Burst

Our “Home” festival was bigger and better than ever this Year!

The Dunstable Kite Festival has grown to a 2 day festival and this year was blessed with great weather.

With Quad copters to capture the event and Stephen Hoath of The Flying Squad & Joe Brown sharing duties on the commentary.
Joe & Stephen Joe & Stephen[/caption]

This year the festival was also able to see Human Kite scupltures, check out the Festival Facebook page for more deatils. https://www.facebook.com/DunstableKiteFestival?fref=ts

Dragon

Dragon


 

 

“EuroVolution” at the Ostend LOTTO KITES INTERNATIONAL

On the same weekend that the politics of the continent were being fought out in the annual Eurovision competition, Rev flyers from across Europe demonstrated their ability to cooperate in a truly international mega-team at the Ostend International Kite Festival.  Representatives from England, Wales, France, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland and Spain braved strong winds and stinging sand to show off their skills to the even braver audience.  Not only did we need excellent flying skills we also needed to be able to quickly process calls being given in at least 4 languages!  Congratulations to Stephen (The Flying Squad) and Marc (Air4ce) for keeping us in order.

The wind was not kind to the festival, showing that you can have too much of a good thing; blasting us with wind speeds of more than 40 kph through out the weekend and gusts of around 100 kph!   We were all “blown away” by more than the wind and must thank Lien and her team of hardworking volunteers, including the ever-smiling field director who weathered all that the weather threw at him.

While sheltering from some of the worst of the weather, Gee and Ryan decided to make up a kite more suited to the wind we were experiencing.  It flew really well too (Ryan even got a axle out of it!).

Ostend is a fabulous kite festival in a stunning location and we are already looking forward to next year’s 30th Ostend LOTTO International Kite Festival.

Rencontres Internationales de Cerfs-Volants de Berck-sur-Mer (R.I.C.V.) 2014

RICV-Berck-2014-crowds

Well that was the week that was!  And what a week.

Berck has become an annual pilgrimage for “The Squad” with this year being our 14th visit to the festival.   Arriving at the Office du Tourisme is the start of another year’s adventure.  The ever efficient organising team are always smiling and helpful, no matter how bad the French we use!

This year the festival was host to The World Sport Kite Championships, so along with the usual array of spectacular single line kites, we were treated to displays by the best sport kite teams in the world.

The beginning of the week saw fabulous weather with clean smooth winds blowing in off the sea.  We flew our ballets in the sunshine and clean winds and had a real blast.

11am every morning saw us on the beach behind the arena practicing for the Rev mega team each afternoon.  This year we were joined by teams FLIC, Loustik, Now’Air, Decorators and Air4ce and fliers from France, Germany, Russia, Belgium and USA.

Things started out normally with threads, and bursts and contra rotating circles.  After that we kinda got carried away.  From the esplanade the spectators were treated to giant cars, bicycles, The Eiffel Tower and Bob & Gianette – giant stick characters constructed from Revs.  We really were having too much fun!

So, many thanks to all you mad, crazy, creative and trusting Rev fliers out there who helped us make such wonderful shapes in the sky and such great memories in our hearts.

 

 

 

Drachen Uber Lemwerder, August 2013

Big Bols and Beer

What a fantastic weekend!  Robert Kirsch and his team certainly know how to throw a kite party.  Everyone worked hard and played hard to put on some stunning displays for the 40,000 who came to see the kites and the circus and stayed into the evening for an amazing night fly (including aliens).

Special thanks to everyone who made us so welcome and gave freely of their food, drink and good humour – we hope to see and fly with you again soon.

PS: The bol is, at 26m, the biggest in Europe and pulls enough to drag a fire truck!

27e Rencontres Internationales de Cerfs-Volants de Berck-sur-Mer (R.I.C.V.)

The first festival of the season for The Flying Squad, RICV Berck is one of the biggest kite events you will see.  Whether you count the size of the flying space, the number of spectators, the number of invited guests or the different kinds of kites flying, RICV Berck is big. This year’s festival was no exception.

During this 10 day event we enjoyed the best of winds and the worst of winds.  Every kite combination came out of the bag and quite often all one day!  To the credit of Revolution Kites and the teams that fly them, no matter what the weather threw at us, the show went on.

There is not enough space to write a detailed report of the festival but for The Flying Squad this event was memorable for the three things.  The smooth clean winds that made the routines so easy to fly, the Rev Mega Team and of course the return of our good friends Team FLIC.

The Mega Teams, both dual and quad line are an important part of the daily kite show and this year the Rev Mega team got creative.  The sound of 30 grown men and women making car noises as a giant 2CV made out of kites flies across the sky is something we will never forget!

So, if you’re planning the schedule for next year and you have not yet been to Berck, do yourself a favour and add it to the list.

Take a look at some of these reports of the event.

The Official Web site of the Festival

Design Kites from Holland’s report

Team Air4ce from Holland

Team AirNergy from Singapore

Portsmouth International Kite Festival 2012

 
August Bank Holiday weekend, Hampshire England.  This was the 21st edition of the Portsmouth Festival that brings kites and flyer’s from all over the globe, to Southsea Common.  Saturday was a day to see some great new kites but variable winds, Sunday was bright and sunny with a better wind coming in off the sea from the Isle of Wight.

This year The Flying Squad were delighted to be joined by Current European Champion  Steff Fermé who will also be joining us again for the week at the Dieppe Festival.

See our pictures here.

Dunstable Downs International Kite Festival 2012

The 14th & 15th July saw the first ever two day kite festival at the National Trust’s Dunstable Downs site.  Saturday was wet with very light winds but Sunday was bright andsunny with lots of wind.  We flew lots of routines and made a lot of noise with 6 North Shore Radicals!

This year The Flying Squad were delighted to be able to host Belgian kite designer Jos Valcke and his wonderful kites at the festival.  Jos’s kites added a real splash of colour and an international flavour to our favourite flying site.  Joined on Sunday by Sebastian Jüttemeier the sky was filled to bursting.

See our pictures here.

Berck Sur Mer 2012

Berck sur Mer Kite Festival Banner

It’s finally here!  The first festival of the kite season is upon us and boy what a way to start.

The Flying Squad - Revolution stacks.

Berck is probably the largest kite festival in the world, whether you go by number of spectators, kite fliers or countries represented and is something of a kiting Mecca.  The Squad have been flying at this festival since our beginings back in 1999 and something that we really look forward to.

This year the event is also hosting the dual line sport kite World Championships. With 15 of the top teams from around the world it should be a great show.  Fingers crossed for another British win by the legendary Scratch Bunnies.

The Scratch Bunnies - World Champions 2010

Look out for photos of the event when we get back, but with ten days of solid kite flying, it might be a few days until we have recovered enough to upload the images!

(posted 05/04/2012)