The Filey Kite Festival is set to reach new heights this year as organisers have partnered with the town’s food and drink festival.
The free event, organised by North Yorkshire Council and the Northern Kite Group, will take place on the weekend of September 21 and 22 at Filey Brigg Country Park and is expected to attract huge crowds.
Featuring some of the UK’s best kite flyers, the festival showcases some of the brightest and most extravagant kites and in previous years has included designs depicting clownfish, huge pandas, octopus, and snakes.
Highlights will include Josh Mitcheson, from Newcastle, who will be flying his kite to music.
He has competed in Sport Kite Championships throughout the UK and Europe, securing 22 national titles and achieving three podium finishes.
In April, he captained Team UK in the Kite World Cup, where the team finished fourth, missing the podium by just 0.1 of a point.
As the kite festival continues to grow, and with a large amount of space available around the flying arena, organisers felt it would be great to invite the ever-popular Filey Food and Drink Festival to sit alongside the event.
Among the many exhibitors will be Filey Distillery, the Wilde Bakery, Scrumptious Cakes and Bakes and All Seasons Fruit Shop.
North Yorkshire Council’s executive member for open to business, Cllr Mark Crane, whose responsibilities include the visitor economy, said: “This promises to be a fantasticevent with the skies above Filey Brigg filled with amazing kites.
“But not only that, while people are looking skywards, they can also enjoy some of the finest food and drink the county has to offer.
“It is important that events, such as this, do not stand still and continually look to change and innovate and we think the addition of the food festival will make this a major draw, not only for visitors but for people local to the area too.”
North Yorkshire Council’s elected member for the Filey division, Cllr Sam Cross said: “The kite festival is always a tremendous spectacle, and this year will be no exception.
“Events like this really show the town off to its full potential and I know there will be plenty of people watching on at Filey Brigg as the kites take to the air.”
Event commentator and kite maker, Alan Poxon, from Gargrave, near Skipton, said kite-flying reignites the child in both those who take part and those who watch.
Mr Poxon said: “I grew up in a little village near Nottingham and when we went on holiday it would be to Skegness. The first thing we would do would be to buy me a kite so I could go play on the beach.
“It’s a curious thing. I have a print I bought some time ago and it says underneath ‘everyone dreams of flying’. Kite-flying is about the safest way of doing that with your feet on the ground. It’s a surprisingly liberating thing that many grown-ups have forgotten about.”
Mr Poxon said he hoped to educate people about the joys ofkite flying during the event.
“I will be telling people about anything and everything I can,” he said. “I have dozens and dozens of books and have been to hundreds of kite festivals and can identify that that is not just a kite, that’s an Edo kite from Japan or that is a Japanese fighting kite, a Sanjo Rokkaku.”
Mr Poxon said Filey Brigg was a good place to fly a kite, but the nearby trees were an occupational hazard.
“Every good kite flyer has a kite stuck in a tree somewhere,” he said. “I am no exception, mine is down in Essex.”
As well as commentating, he will be taking part with his wife, Becky, in a display to music.
“We will be doing something akin to an aerial ballet. It is very much in the style of figure skating,” he said, adding that he would encourage everyone to come down and watch.
“If you have been to a little kite festival, that’s fine. If you have been to a big kite festival, where they stretch for half-a-mile across a beach, that is also fine. But if you want to see an amazing selection of kites, all in one field, then come to Filey Kite Festival,” he said.
The event and programme timetable are subject to change depending on wind and general weather conditions.
Event programme (each day)
10am: Pallas family flyers. Two-line display to music.
10.30am: Graham Lockwood. Multiple kites.
11am: Josh Mitcheson. Kite flying to music.
11.30am: Team Orion, John Whymark, Johnny Savage andIan Duncalf. Four-line display to music.
12pm: Teddy bear drop, where teddies fly down on a parachute for children to catch.
12pm: Sky Duet featuring Becky and Alan Poxon, Two-linedisplay to music.
12pm: Chinese Dragon. Owned by the late Vanessa Pottsand flown by Tom Potts and Melissa Simpkins.
1pm: Pallas family flyers. Two-line display to music.
2pm: Teddy bear drop, where teddies fly down on a parachute for children to catch.
1.30pm: Graham Lockwood. Multiple kites.
2pm: Nasaman. Keith Warner with his quad line kite.
2.30pm: Team Orion, John Whymark, Johnny Savage andIan Duncalf. Four-line display to music.
3pm: Sky duet featuring Becky and Alan Poxon. Two-linedisplay to music.
3.30pm: Josh Mitcheson. Kite flying to music.
4pm: Close.
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