Hereford Kite Festival 2007

July 14th and 15th 2007

The Hereford Kite Festival returns for a sixth year. It's a laid-back friendly festival showcasing some of the best sport and single line kites. It's for kite enthusiasts and for the public to come along and watch – and to bring along a kite and join in.

This year, the festival moves to a new location, Berrington Hall, a National Trust property near Leominster, a few miles north of Hereford city.

Location

Berrington Hall nr Leominster, Herefordshire HR6 0DW

Fron Hereford, head north on the A49; Berrington Hall is 3ml north of Leominster on the west side of the A49.

For more info, click on The Berrington Hall website

The flying site will be on the lawns leading down to the lake.

IMPORTANT: Please contact Karl or Sara in advance for a car pass; otherwise the National Trust will ask you to pay for admission.

NEWS FLASH: there are major roadworks on the A49. Northbound traffic is being diverted from the end of the Leominster bypass along the B4361. Berrington Hall access is sign posted from the diversion, but will be along narrow country lanes, so caravaners take care. Southbound access to Berrington Hall is not affected. Further information about these road works is available at www.highways.gov.uk/roads/projects/14155.aspx

Programme

We'll be running this as a very informal fly-in - there will be an arena with featured flyers and a nice mix of sports and single-line kites as well as power kites. But plenty of guest slots so come along and do your thing!

There's plenty of space for flying outside the arena too.

The Hereford Club will be flying some massive traditional Chinese dragon kites - probably the largest pair of dragons currently flying in the UK.

There will be some kite festival regulars such as rokkaku kite fights.

Sport kites will be on display too, with some planned and improvised ballets set to music, hopefully finishing off with a megateam display.

The fly-in starts at 12.00 and runs until 5.00pm (ish). If you are a newcomer to kites, you’ll be able to get lessons from members of the local Airheads display team and others.

All events are subject to wind, so the programme will be flexible.

Watch this space for details...

Camping

Camping will be available at the site. Please note that this is a National Trust site, so camping must be booked in advance. Please call Karl or Sara Longbottom on 01981 550326 or e-mail.

Camping available Friday (access from 5pm), Saturday and Sunday nights, but campers must leave before 10am Monday morning. Cost of camping £5.00 for one night, £10.00 for two or three nights.
As it is a National Trust property no fires or BBQ's on site.
The camping/parking passes entitle the named holder to two complementary tickets to visit the Hall.
We are still not sure if we can provide a meal on the Saturday evening, further details to follow shortly.

Usual arrangements for toilet facilities - but please note there are no showers on site.

There are some other camping sites locally if you want to extend your stay in Hereford.

Contact details

Hereford Kite Association

c/o Airdynamics. PO Box 22, Hereford HR4 8UW, United Kingdom

Telephone & Fax: +44 (0) 1432 271598

Email: karl@kitefestival.org.uk or peter@kitefestival.org.uk

Karl Longbottom: 01981 550326 or karl@longbottom.org.uk

Jim Corke: 01432 851075

Peter Taylor: 07720 034566 or peter@airdynamics.co.uk

Other festivals

Our friends at the Golden Valley Kite Flyers have their festival the following weekend . Full information on http://www.gvkf.org.uk/html/festival.html - there's plenty of places to stay and some beautiful countryside - so if you are coming from out of the area, why not make a week of it?