What are kite festivals?

Kite festivals are gatherings of kite flyers either from a region or from all around the world. Many kite festivals are organised by clubs. The clubs exist to provide public liablity insurance, air space clearance to fliers and for social gatherings. We get together to see each others kites and swap designs and ideas and perhaps buy a few new kites. There are normally kite sellers at the events and entrance is normally free or very cheap to the public. Most will have catering vans and a few have craft stalls. Each festival is slightly different in flavour some are mostly for competitions (STACK) where fliers do wonderful kite dances to music. Some have lots of big display kites. They are a great family outing. Festivals of note in the UK are Washington, Bristol and Wirral. In Europe Fano and Chervia. In America Niagra has a reputation as a good international event.