The Portsmouth International Kite Festival arranged by Gill and Jon Bloom was held on 29th and 30th July 2023 on Southsea Common. It was certainly a windy weekend with blue sky on the first day but was grey and wet on the Sunday. It certainly didn’t dampen the spirits of the fliers too much though. There was a great display of inflatables on the west side of the common, some super single line stick kites being shown on the east side and then some super displays of 1, 2 and 4 line kites happening in the main central arena. Gill and Jon again brought together a great selection of UK and international flyers. As usual at these large events it’s great to meet up with old and new friends who brought a real varied range of kites to fly. One of our favourites was a superb cellular kite by Peter Gaulhofer. Others obviously thought the same as it won best kite at the festival.
