So What visits Fréjus International Kitefest 2003
Welcome to this account of our visit to The Fréjus International Kitefest 2003, or, in French, le Festival International de l'Air 2003.
First let's explain the navigation. You can navigate through these pages by using the picture bar on the left: choose the picture you want to see enlarged, and click on it.
Another way of navigating these pages is by means of the Fearsome Hawk-kites below. From left to right: back, home and more. Home takes you to one page up from this one, more is the next picture, and back is the previous one.
Enjoy!
The account below is quite short; we'd rather let the pictures do the talking.
Guest of honour this year was The Netherlands. 35 Dutch kiters were invited to come and show their kites to other kiters from all over the world, and of course the public. With them was a group of 15 folklore-dancers, who did their show on the main platform several times a day.
Among the group of Dutch kiters were Lood and Boi, representing So What?-kite-team.
We arrived late on friday evening, so we could be present at the opening at saturday morning november 1st. Lodging, provided by the organisation at a holiday park, was good and comfortable. Not that we needed it much; it was two long days outdoors full of kite fun and -lore, with three verrrry short nights ;-).
Saturday started off with very little wind. Not good, at least for us with our quadline kites. So we started by assembling a lot of our kites to show them to the public. In the meantime we scouted the grounds (and the air, of course....) for other beautiful kites. There were a lot of them around.
The afternoon had a little more wind, and we were able to show our kites to the French sky.
Saturday evening a Gala-diner was arranged for all 350 kiters. Great fun, and very nice French cuisine.
Sunday was a very fine day: lots of sun and wind. Very strange thing though: around lunchtime the wind died down to near zero, and by two o'clock it was back again; however it had turned 180 degrees! People told us this is normal for this region. Hmmm, not what we would call normal.... ;-)
No complaints from us, however. The wind was good, we had fun kiting, and even got a slight sunburn. In between we enjoyed some of the numerous shows by lots of the best kiters from all over the world. The week before there were finals for all competition kiters, so all champions were present to show the public their ballets in the air.
And the public had a lot to see: wonderful kites that filled the air, beautiful ballets by the best of the best, and the oldest (77!) and the youngest (3!).
Three of our favourite moments: the show by 77-year-old Ray Bethell, doing a wonderful and absolutely perfect ballet with three kites, on his own; seeing Les Simonnet's beautiful kites in the air; and of course when European Champion Quad-line kites Stephen Hoath joined us to try our Fearsome Hawk SkyDancers. He had some very good tips, and enjoyed the kites very much. Not bad for some hicks from Limburg, Holland, eh? (Thanks T and A for introducing us; you know who you are).
It was a wonderful weekend, and we enjoyed it very much. There were times when we felt like two kids in a toy store!
We hope you enjoy the pictures Lood and I made.
back home more
<mail us>
Welcome to this account of our visit to The Fréjus International Kitefest 2003, or, in French, le Festival International de l'Air 2003.
First let's explain the navigation. You can navigate through these pages by using the picture bar on the left: choose the picture you want to see enlarged, and click on it.
Another way of navigating these pages is by means of the Fearsome Hawk-kites below. From left to right: back, home and more. Home takes you to one page up from this one, more is the next picture, and back is the previous one.
Enjoy!
The account below is quite short; we'd rather let the pictures do the talking.
Guest of honour this year was The Netherlands. 35 Dutch kiters were invited to come and show their kites to other kiters from all over the world, and of course the public. With them was a group of 15 folklore-dancers, who did their show on the main platform several times a day.
Among the group of Dutch kiters were Lood and Boi, representing So What?-kite-team.
We arrived late on friday evening, so we could be present at the opening at saturday morning november 1st. Lodging, provided by the organisation at a holiday park, was good and comfortable. Not that we needed it much; it was two long days outdoors full of kite fun and -lore, with three verrrry short nights ;-).
Saturday started off with very little wind. Not good, at least for us with our quadline kites. So we started by assembling a lot of our kites to show them to the public. In the meantime we scouted the grounds (and the air, of course....) for other beautiful kites. There were a lot of them around.
The afternoon had a little more wind, and we were able to show our kites to the French sky.
Saturday evening a Gala-diner was arranged for all 350 kiters. Great fun, and very nice French cuisine.
Sunday was a very fine day: lots of sun and wind. Very strange thing though: around lunchtime the wind died down to near zero, and by two o'clock it was back again; however it had turned 180 degrees! People told us this is normal for this region. Hmmm, not what we would call normal.... ;-)
No complaints from us, however. The wind was good, we had fun kiting, and even got a slight sunburn. In between we enjoyed some of the numerous shows by lots of the best kiters from all over the world. The week before there were finals for all competition kiters, so all champions were present to show the public their ballets in the air.
And the public had a lot to see: wonderful kites that filled the air, beautiful ballets by the best of the best, and the oldest (77!) and the youngest (3!).
Three of our favourite moments: the show by 77-year-old Ray Bethell, doing a wonderful and absolutely perfect ballet with three kites, on his own; seeing Les Simonnet's beautiful kites in the air; and of course when European Champion Quad-line kites Stephen Hoath joined us to try our Fearsome Hawk SkyDancers. He had some very good tips, and enjoyed the kites very much. Not bad for some hicks from Limburg, Holland, eh? (Thanks T and A for introducing us; you know who you are).
It was a wonderful weekend, and we enjoyed it very much. There were times when we felt like two kids in a toy store!
We hope you enjoy the pictures Lood and I made.
back home more
<mail us>