We went to St Annes Kite Festival yesterday and it was quite spectacular. However, the discussion in the car on the way home left us with unanswered questions.

1. Are these kites bought off the shelf or are they commissioned?

2. Do the people who own the kites pitch up, get them up in the air, and then spend the rest of the day sat chatting and drinking flasks of tea on deck chairs at the back of their enormous 4x4s and SUVs every weekend? I’m not knocking this as they all seem to have a very relaxing time of it.

We went on Saturday and were equally impressed.

a lot of them is off the shelf, i have been to a massive kite festival in Denmark a few times and its the same kites you see.

Ocotopus do you:
23m Octopus

More and more are now off the shelf. They used to all be bespoke. A lot travel. And yes, kite flying is very relaxing (quad team acrobatics aside).

Was in St Annes 3 weeks ago with the wife, kids and our Aldi stunt kite.
Spent the best part of an hour trying to get it up and failing massively despite the strong on-shore wind.
Couple of hours later a young lad (3ish) and his gran stroll past with their kite flying resplendently overhead.
My eldest pipes up “Daddy Daddy ask the boy if he can get our kite to work”…
Damn you Aldi, I lost Dad points that can never be recovered 😈

Back in the day (Well the late 80s I used to deal with this guy.

http://www.peterlynnkites.com/kites1/show-kites