Gallery: Royston Kite Festival 2009
PERFECT conditions for kite flying ensured this year s Royston Kite Festival was a soar-away success. Between 5,000 and 6,000 people are thought to have attended the festival, which took place on Therfield Heath on Sunday. Event manager Peter Mitton, from
PERFECT conditions for kite flying ensured this year's Royston Kite Festival was a soar-away success.
Between 5,000 and 6,000 people are thought to have attended the festival, which took place on Therfield Heath on Sunday.
Event manager Peter Mitton, from the Rotary Club of Royston, said: "I'm not a kite-flier but I'm told the conditions were perfect. I think someone must have been smiling on us."
Visitors flocked to the heath to see such attractions as the Great Ouse fliers, the Royston power kiters, and the ever-popular Stafford Wallace Indian fighting kites.
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Mr Mitton added: "It was a really good crowd, probably a record, and the atmosphere was superb.
"We like to think of it as a community event, because it always attracts so many families from the Royston area, but the festival has also become a landmark event for kiters.
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"It is a firm fixture on the kite flying calendar, so it's a real mixture of people who attend."
Royston MP Oliver Heald joined the festivities with his daughter, Victoria.
He said: "This was the best Kite Festival yet with more stalls than ever before and some lively kite flying exhibitions, a kite workshop and many amusements.
"It was good to see the voluntary and charitable bodies taking part, as well as the emergency and other public services. I congratulate the Rotarians on making this such a great advertisement for Royston.
"We are lucky to have such a perfect kite flying place as the Heath and it is good to learn more about the skills of the experts," he said.
Cllr David Levett, vice-chairman of North Herts District Council, opened the festival, and profits, which are still being counted, will go to various charities, with the main beneficiaries being the Phoenix group for deaf children, based in Ashwell.
