Adelaide Kite Festival 2008

So many shapes, sizes & colors

Our initial impressions were similar to last year. This was partly because many of the same larger kites were back again, of course. However, this is a big event so the more you look, the more you see!

Also, people are putting up and taking down their kites at various times, so the kite cloud can change from hour to hour.

See the photo over there.

Kite cloud is now a pet phrase of mine, and according to the big search-engine starting with G, no-one else has used it ... yet.

During the Adelaide Kite Festival 2008 I looked up there at a sky full of kites, and it seemed cloud-like to me! It's a gaggle of geese, a flock of birds, and a cloud of kites.

On the topic of birds, we couldn't help spotting a few small bird-like and plane-like novelty kites, mainly from over in the public flying area. One in particular swooped past; it was perfect, the flying line must have been so light we couldn't see ... hang on, that was a real seagull!

All sorts of windsock characters

Let's go back to why the kite cloud changes. Here are a few reasons why someone might take down their kite:

• the wind speed has increased too much, making it unsuitable for the kite
• the kite flyer has gone home
• room has to be made for a demonstration, like stunt flying or kite fighting
• shifting winds have caused a line tangle with another kite

New kites might be put up too, for reasons related to those above.

For example, a kite flyer has just arrived in the flying area. Or perhaps there's finally enough wind for a particular type of kite to go up. We even saw a couple of self-launching kite arches, flying or resting on the dunes according to the strength of the breeze!

Of course, if the wind dies completely, somebody gets the satisfaction of briefly seeing that their kite is the very last one flying! If my memory serves me right, that honor went to a large dark delta on Friday, during a lull.

The video down there is a pan-around, showing the subtle but constant motion of this festival's kite cloud. The photo is a closeup from inside the cloud.

The sign sums it all up

Temperatures were in the high 20s, Celcius, on all three days. That's in the 80s, Fahrenheit. I'd call that very pleasant, unless you're an Eskimo!

After a quick glance through my image folders, it seems that all three days were completely cloudless. Perhaps Monday was too. Now that's unusual and makes me wonder whether any other kite festival in the world has been completely cloudless on every day! South Australia is one of the driest states in a dry country.

There's our 2-year-old kite-flyer in his pram, suitably protected from the giant UV lamp in the sky.

Friday had a light, gusty southeast-to-easterly wind, which made for a rather small kite cloud at times.

Saturday was better, with a moderate southwest-to-westerly sea breeze. However, the kite surfers would have liked more.

Sunday had a great turnout of kite flyers for the Adelaide Kite Festival 2008. The light-to-moderate gusty southerly was enough to keep a big kite cloud up there!