Organised by Midland Kite Fliers this Festival took place at Shipley Country Park, Heanor, Derbyshire on 27/28th July 2002. The Shipley event was split into two. On the Saturday Dodd Gross was holding a Flight School with the main festival being on the Sunday. I’d heard a lot about Dodd and had borrowed a video of his a number of weeks before the event. I had a great time on Saturday at the Flight School and have never flown so much in one day. Although I felt I knew a reasonable amount, I decided to join the Precision group. I’m certainly glad I did. Dodd made a number of very useful suggestions to the basics. Maybe everyone should do it first time around. I had a great time with some really friendly fellow “students” and had the amount of time, if not more, allocated to me that I would have expected given the numbers there. Essentially my recommendation to others if they get the chance would be sign-up for Flight School. And I’m not getting paid to say that either. The Sunday saw the festival proper with some good displays including a spectacular mid-air collision during the Sky Symphony routine. I felt the arena boundary could have been better monitored (always a difficult job). I ended up helping someone get their Flowform out of the trees after its lines were attacked by a well meaning flyer who’d just bought his first kite.