Two days after standing around in the dark playing with an electronic bat detector, I found myself back in Stanmer Park on Sunday afternoon for the Brighton Kite Festival, a free event with strings attached. It’s not every day you get to see a giant octopus chasing a crocodile through the skies with the help of a purple teddy bear, so it seemed like an occasion not to be missed.
Stanmer Park had been transformed for the weekend into summer festival country: tents, stalls and sideshows were dotted everywhere, people picnicked, children played, and the smell of overpriced burgers floated on the breeze. But it was the sky above the park which had truly been transformed. Everywhere you looked there were kites, from the simple single-line variety that I failed to fly as a child, to manoeuvrable stunt kites and giant inflatable fruit. It was hard to walk more than a few metres in any direction without being garrotted by the line from an airborne vegetable.
The focal point of the festival was the arena, a large roped-off area where displays of kite flying took place throughout the day. The organisers had, according to the announcer on the P.A., “spent all night making sacrifices to the wind god”, and we’d been blessed with a decent breeze, so I settled down for some airborne entertainment.
For me, the highlight of the afternoon’s displays came from Bryan and Carl, a father and son duo known as Team Spectrum. They’re like Team ZX81, only faster and with a better memory. The pair performed an astonishingly impressive routine, flying their kites in formation like the Red Arrows at low altitude.
Carl followed this up by attempting to fly three kites at once, whilst accompanied by Lionel Richie’s ‘Hello’. With one control bar in his left hand and one in his right, the announcer posed the question “Where do you think he’s going to put the third one?”. My imagination ran wild, but as it turned out he had it attached to a harness around his waist. Carl’s first attempt failed, so it was goodbye to ‘Hello’ while they set up again, but take two was faultless. As someone who struggles to get one kite airborne, I couldn’t help but be impressed.
A close second in terms of visual spectacle were the kites shaped like aeroplanes, which took to the skies accompanied by the Dambusters theme. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mid-air dogfight between the Red Baron and Snoopy in a Sopwith Camel, especially one which resulted in them both being taken down by a teddy bear in a bi-plane. As the announcer said, “The Red Cross are standing by in case of casualties”.
Another display involved Indian Fighter Kites, small single line kites made of tissue paper. In an attempt at audience participation, the announcer announced (for that was his job) that the lines would be cut one by one, and asked for six child volunteers to retrieve the kites from wherever they fell. As the first line was cut, I watched as the tiny kite was unexpectedly caught by a gust of wind and floated off high over the trees towards the university campus, with six small children in hot pursuit, and twelve startled parents wondering why their offspring were disappearing over the horizon towards Kent. I don’t think they’ll be trying that again next year.
