Bristol International Festival of Kites & Air Creations
Saturday 30 & Sunday 31 August 2008
11.00am - 5.00pm, Ashton Court Estate

Introduction
We are looking forward to welcoming familiar friends and hopefully lots of new faces to Bristol this year for our 22nd festival!. Please do bring along any interesting kites, windsocks, inflatables, ground displays or sky junk to fly either in our special arena spots or generally in the free flying areas to add to the Festival atmosphere. If your kites are really spectacular or unusual let us know in advance and send in pictures so that we can build them into the Festival programme and pre-publicity.

Guests:
We are still liaising with various flyers and clubs as well as looking to share costs of some long distance flyers with Portsmouth.

Invitations are still out to some people but so far we can confirm the following overseas guests. Robert Brassington from Tasmania, Masaaki Modegi and his wife from Japan, Robert van Weers from New Zealand, Claudio and Caterina Cappelli from Italy, team AWITA from France, Janneke Groen also from Holland (who has probably attended more Bristol festivals than any other overseas guest), big softee Marco Casadio and the evergreen Peter Lynn from New Zealand. There will be others so as the line up and programme gets firmed up this will be posted on the festival website (www.kite-festival.org.uk)

From the UK we also hope to welcome back many of the usual suspects. To name a few: Carl Robertshaw and the Scratch Bunnies, Andrew and Kathleen Beattie, Team Spectrum, Kelvin Woods, Anne Harris (with her wonderful air creations) not to mention local talent of Nick James and Martin Lester.

A special feature this year will be celebrations for the 20th anniversary of Revolution Kites which we are jointly hosting with Portsmouth. Up to 70 rev flyers are expected to come to Bristol and will be performing some awesome mass routines and displays both in a special third arena and as part of the main demo programme. Flyers will include top USA/Canadian team I-Quad plus a number of teams from Europe including Crazy Drivers, Flic, Team4Fun, Bolau as well as UK ‘s very own The Decorators and Flying Squad.

Last but by no means least Avon Kite Flyers are the festival’s host club and AKF work really hard not only helping with the organisation, running children’s workshops and the information marquee but also putting on their own impressive arena displays.

Within the arena programme there will as usual be opportunities for kite societies and clubs to contribute to items such as artistic kites, themed slots such as festival of the sea and of course the usual Rok battles (no Kevlar please), both days, so do bring along your individual and team kites ready to enter.

Alongside the arenas there will be the usual line up of kite traders and Festival food and drink, a licensed bar, a range of air sculptures and inflatables and some children’s entertainments.

Festival Charity:
This year we are again supporting Wallace & Grommit’s Grand Appeal which is the charity for the Bristol Children’s Hospital which is a specialist centre for young patients from all over the region. We have specified that any money raised should go towards funding equipment needed on the children’s and adolescent cancer wards. We are working with the appeal and Aardman on some great ideas for the festival and can promise some ‘cracking’ entertainment!

Saturday night party
As has become a tradition at Bristol there will be an on site kite flyers’ Saturday evening party under cover in the large marquee with the usual excellent hot meal and bar which will be followed by the Festival auction. Afterwards there will be the usual wonderful fireworks and hopefully some night flying. If anyone can contribute to night flying we would love to hear from you.

We try and offer something different each year and this time we are having an Indian meal courtesy of Spice up your Life. Tickets for the meal cover a choice of meat or vegetarian dishes and a desert. Prices have been pegged for the eighth year running at £10 per adult and £5 for a child (under 14 please!!).

Those not eating are more than welcome to come along and generally join in the party and make use of the bar and don’t miss the Festival Auction.

We have to confirm catering numbers the week beforehand and if you leave it to the day you may well find tickets have run out so please reserve your meal tickets in advance by contacting the Festival office. Either pay by cheque on application or you can pay and pick up your tickets on the day from the Information tent but you need to collect these by 3pm on the day or they will be released for others to buy as we ALWAYS run out!!.

Accommodation
We have again negotiated rates, which are the same as last year and ring fenced an allocation of rooms at the Redwood Lodge Hotel which is now owned by the Folio Group. This is the nearest hotel to the site and the car park can take vans, cars with top boxes etc. These rates will be held for reservations made before 31st July 2007.

Costs are £70 per night for a double/twin including bed & breakfast. Please note that the hotel will charge their normal rates for reservations made after 31st July (though we are working on them to be a bit more flexible re this cut off time!). Bookings should be made direct with Redwood Lodge on tel 0870 609 6144 mention you are booking as part of the Kite Festival.

If we get any other hotel deals offered these will be posted on the festival website www.kite-festival.org

We have also negotiated rates within the Clifton Hotels Group which covers a number of hotels in Clifton ( the other side of the Suspension Bridge) Tel0117 946 7469 and again quote Kite festival Group to get the special rate. Visit to see their range and location of hotels.

If you want to look at other hotel options try the Bristol Tourist Information Centre Accommodation hotline 0845 408 0474 or try www.visitbristol.co.uk

Camping
As many regulars will know this is always a real problem for us as the Council has a ban on all camping in Ashton Court which is very frustrating as there is so much space. Also we appreciate that many of you want to stay close by and hotels aren't an option!

We have historically had a 'Crew Area' where we can have pre-booked camping for traders and suppliers to which over the years has become unofficial camping. The Council have said that this cannot continue and must return to a crew only area.

We have however managed to sort out some proper camping facilities for flyers at the Cotham Park Rugby Club ground. This is literally a 5-10 minute walk from site (depending on your speed!). The Club can accommodate camping for tents and/or caravans, and provide secure parking, showers and real toilets! 'Above ground' BBQs are also permitted, as are pets (as long as you clean up after them – this is their playing field!).

There will be a nightly cost, to be confirmed soon, but it should be in the range of £10 a night. The site will be available for Saturday and Sunday night (30 and 31 Aug), and can be open on Friday night as well if there is enough interest.

You must pre register so if you are interested please either email your details to and put 'Rugby Club camping' as the subject or send an SAE to 5 Lilymead Ave, Bristol BS4 2BY. Please include the name(s) of camper(s), contact email, phone and address, number of tents/caravans and dates of arrival/departure. Also note if you would like to arrive on Friday so we can gauge interest and arrange accordingly. Payment will be made to the Rugby Club directly and will be collected on arrival.

http://www.cothamparkrfc.co.uk/drupal/balloon_fiesta.html?q=node/23

Parking
To help cover costs, such as our site fee and event licence, we are again asking flyers for a contribution to car parking. On arrival any flyers displaying a valid festival pass will be asked to pay just £3.00 per day, (instead of £7 for general public).

To get your car pass please apply in writing, with SAE, BUT SEND NO MONEY to: Festival Office, 5 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BY Passes will be issued by on a first come first served basis up to a maximum of 500. (Any kite flyers who are AKF members will have received details in the recent AKF Newsletter asking their members to reply separately) The Festival will also be running a system of dropping off passes for those with particularly heavy loads of kites and kit so again mention this in your car parking request.

On behalf of the Festival team we are looking forward to seeing you soon.

Any queries please contact Avril Baker or Lynn Gibbons at: Festival Office, 5 Lilymead Avenue, Bristol BS4 2BY. Tel: 0117 977 2002 Fax: 0117 977 4255

www.kite-festival.org. e-mail: info@abc-pr.co.uk or festival@kite-festival.org