St Annes Kite Festival set to bring colour galore to the skies this weekend

The colourful celebration of craft, skill and family fun is a partnership between Fylde Council and kite-flying specialists SmileFactor10, and set to attract tens of thousands of visitors from all over the UK as well as kite fliers from New Zealand, Germany, Italy, Ireland and more.

Here’s what to look out for

The celebrations kick off on Friday, September 2 with a grand opening at 6pm by Fylde mayor Coun Ben Aitken, followed by flying of all kinds of kites large and small either side of the St Annes Pier.

From dusk, an illuminated kite flying evening will see kites with flashing lights take to the sky, accompanied by floodlit inflatables in the shapes of all manner of creatures, and at 9:30pm there will be a spectacular fireworks display.

Across the Saturday (11am to 5pm) and Sunday (11am to 4pm), six arenas will be host to all kinds of kites, with more animal inflatables, artistic kites, and sports kites choreographed to music.

You can bring your own kite to join in or buy a kite at the event and fly it in the public area. There will also be funfair rides on the beach, refreshment stalls, and plenty of other entertainment.

A wealth of new features for 2022 include: The Art Kite Arena - featuring international kite artist Frances Anderson, who will be the dedicated arena director for single line, sparred kites, art installations, and banners; Wind Garden - dedicated arena for decorative ground art, mobiles, spinners, ladybirds, crabs, and all manner of zany beach bouncers; Kite Arch and Bols Arena – the opportunity to see kite trains that reach far into the sky. Kite arches are formed from lines of colourful diamond kites, while bols are large circular wind spinners and turbines, combining to make gorgeous displays.

International guest fliers featuring this year include Malcolm Hubbard, who flies the biggest kites in the world made on his doorstep in New Zealand; Florian Janich from Germany, one of the world’s leading banner and kite makers, and Ralf Maserski, who takes kite design to a new level - both will be in the art kite arena.

Bernhard Dingwerth from Germany is world-renowned for big, colourful kites to delight and amuse while Caterina Capelli from Italy is the organiser of the world’s leading art kite festivals and Kite Ireland will be sending a team of fliers over the water.

Coun Michael Sayward, chairman of Fylde Council’s Tourism & Leisure Committee, said: “It’s a great pleasure to be able to welcome the St Annes International Kite Festival back to our award-winning beach.

"This year’s event promises to be even more dazzling than ever, and I’d like to thank our partners at SmileFactor10 as well as our own officers for their hard work in making it happen. It’s bound to be a brilliant time out for young and old alike.”

The Festival is entirely weather dependent, and the planned programme may be changed without notice for safety reasons. Full information about the event and the facilities, is at the Discover Fylde website.