Skys the limit for kite festival (From Western Telegraph)

Skys the limit for kite festival

KITE FLYING is cooler than playing computer games, according to the organisers of the Pembrokeshire Sky Festival to be held this weekend. Young people will be shown how to make and fly their own kites when hundreds of weird and wonderful designs fill the sky over the village of Carew.

Festival organiser Steve Walton said: Youngsters dont get the chance to make things like they did a few years ago. Were encouraging them to get off their computers and do something creative.

Steve, a professional kite-maker, has been holding workshops for school children at Templeton, Jeffreyston, Sageston, Pembroke Dock and Carew. He says: Weve been surprised by a growing interest in kites among youngsters. Its fun, inexpensive and young people appreciate the fact that it doesnt harm the environment.

The colourful festival was launched last year in whats said to be Wales windiest county. That experiment was a great success and now the festival is set to become an annual event. This year, Britains biggest kite - a 900 square foot parafoil - will be taking part.

Therell be demonstrations by the White Horse Kite Flyers, a semi-professional club from Swindon, while consultants Jay Turner and Ken Knight will hold kite workshops for children and parents.

Entry is free to the two-day festival, based at a Second World War control tower on the disused airfield near Carew Market. Members of the Carew Historical Society are restoring the tower as a key heritage site.

The event aims to raise awareness of the site as a tourist attraction and provide an opportunity to learn about local history and heritage. The local community is running the festival and the emphasis is on a family day out. The ancient art of kite flying originated in China and visitors will get the chance to see historic kites in action, such as wartime aviation windsocks from the 1940s.

The event may develop into a Festival of Wind in future years - featuring wind mobiles, musical instruments, sculptures and weather vanes. Steve Walton said: As the festival expands, Pembrokeshire may become as well known for its wind as Hay-on-Wye is for its books.

The Pembrokeshire Sky Festival on Saturday and Sunday, August 17th and 18th, is supported by PLANED (Pembrokeshire Local Action Network for Enterprise and Development) and the Welsh Development Agency Rural Recovery Fund.

q Welsh aviation pioneer Bill Frost, of Saundersfoot, will be commemorated at next years festival.

A kite replica is to be built of the aircraft in which Frost may have beaten the Wright brothers to achieve the worlds first powered flight. Steve Walton, who is researching the project, said: Frost started building his triplane in 1880. It was a 31 foot long machine built from bamboo, canvas and wire mesh and propelled by two fans, helped by a cylinder filled with hydrogen.

Its claimed Frost and his machine took off for a few seconds in 1886, but crashed during a storm. Frost may have been the first Welshman to fly and its appropriate that he should be remembered and honoured here in Pembrokeshire.