This year's Kite Festival, jointly run by Rougham Airfield and the Suffolk Kite Flyers, was the biggest yet. Despite the appallingly dismal weather on Saturday, there was just enough wind to fly the lighter kites and they made interesting silhouettes in the grey sky.

However on Sunday the weather was hugely improved and the Festival could get down to business. There were four arenas, allowing for many kites to be flown and several competitions to be run simultaneously. The main competition was the Stack UK Championships, in which individuals were competing freestyle. The display of kite handling skills was quite stunning.

Other events held during the day included displays from the Eastern Rocketry Association, who launched many projectiles high into the sky, to return on parachutes. The UK Manja Indian Fighter Club held a short contest using their tiny, diamond-shaped paper kites, which use glass-impregnated lines. The idea is to cut your opponents' lines until you have the last kite left in the sky. Children were allowed to collect and keep the fallen kites.

Kites were flown to music by two teams - Dark Star and the Skydivers Display Team. Dark Star is a man named Brian Cantle, who flies three kites at once, perfectly synchronized, to music. The Skydivers each fly one kite with an extraordinarily long tail, with which they make interwoven patterns in the sky.

It was worth keeping one's eyes open for goings on outside the arenas, also. It was hard to miss the giant kites in the shapes of a bear and a green monster called Megabyte, being flown by the Beccles Bunch, but many other interesting and unusual kites were to be seen all around. It was very amusing to watch a man with a Revolution kite, who had amazing control over it, have the kite approach small children, stop it mid-air and let them touch it!

The other large team to make the trip to Suffolk was Team Adrenalize. This is a team of power kite flyers who like to put many kites together into a stack. They use the big foils for kite buggying, but they use the stack for man-lifting! It was touch and go as to whether the wind would be strong enough to make the attempt, but they went for it. A large stack of ten Flexifoil Stacker 10 kites was assembled and two helpers stood to either side of the flyer, with lines to stabilize him. The flyer caught the wind in the stack of kites and lifted off the ground, many metres into the air!

It certainly seemed to be a great Kite Festival, and judging by the large crowd on the Sunday, people were enjoying themselves. Many people took advantage of the day to visit Rougham Tower as well, and watch the activities of the Confederates re-enactment squad camped outside. An excellent start to the season.

To visit the Suffolk Kite Flyers website, click here.