Streatham Common Kite Day

Streatham Common Kite Day is back! After an absence of three years, mostly due to covid, we flew there again for the first time since 2019. 

The usual line-up was brought together again for the arena displays:

And as to the wind .... well, typically Streatham! Very light (up to 4mph max) and infuriatingly changing direction a lot quickly; think 180+ degrees in less than half a minute .... Which meant that the choreography of most of our routines went out the window, and the main focus simply became prevention of landing .... 

Who were struggling with the wind conditions?

First of Carl Wright, the one-man Team Spectrum, flying (as long as the wind allowed) 2-kite and 3-kite routines (and, yes, including 'Chi Mai', my all-time favourite of his routines!).

Fracture was present, in a slightly changed formation. At one time, they were flying to live music, played by a local band, rather than their own routine music, making up the moves and patterns as they went along.

Twisted Bridle, our sister pair within the L-katz team, flew one-routine slots, and it was good to see them in an arena again. 

And then us, Flying Fish, of course. Basically flying our current technical routine to the 'Carmina mix', we've recently been using for that. Because of some difficulties with the PA system, we had to change the music for our make-it-up-as-we-go-along routine several times, but as it isn't a fixed choreography to music, it didn't really matter. 

Put Twisted Bridle and Flying Fish together, and you get L-katz. We flew our usual set of choreographed routines to 'Gloria Estefan' and 'Targaryen Theme'. As much as the wind allowed us, that is, because the choreography often turned into keeping the kites flying while not running out of arena ... 

Of course, if you put Fracture and L-katz together at a kite festival, a mega-team is unavoidable! We've flown in mega-teams at Streatham before, in 2015 and 2019, and in both cases, the mega-team consisted of six flyers and kites. This time, due to Carl Wright joining in as well, we had an eight-strong line-up, to my knowledge the largest mega-team ever at Streatham!

Even though we really struggled to keep things going, we did fly basic patterns and gave the public an idea of what flying eight kites together looks like. And we must have done something right: after we finished the last of the two mega-team performances, one member of the public told me we'd brought her to tears .... Seeing eight kites flying together in formation was so beautiful that it made her cry ...

And that is what flying at a kite festival is all about!!

Picture credits: Helen Ribchester (Flying Fish); Paul Hill, Carl Wright (L-katz, mega-team)