|
Post by Gareth Williams on Sept 21, 2011 18:07:36 GMT
I agree with Collin, its such a shame that council "officials" seem hell bent on taking an event and squeezing all of the fun out of it!
|
|
|
Post by gerty on Sept 22, 2011 0:08:23 GMT
Blimey...dangerous place then..Capstone...?
|
|
|
Post by malcolmf on Sept 22, 2011 10:36:06 GMT
Collin,
There have been a few changes at Capstone and Medway Council. Medway Council has put together an events team, to co-ordinate all the events in Medway, and they are at the behest of the site managers such as Capstone.
Until about 4 years ago, it was the park rangers and in particular Kristian who co-ordinated the Kites over Capstone week-ends. Although I believe Kristian is still a ranger, Capstone Park is overseen by a Park Manager, who just does not or does not want to understand about kiters who wish to camp from the Friday.
All we can do is to try to support the event as best we are able to do as clubs and individually so as it does not die out completely in the hope that in due course it can be turned back into a two day event with camping.
|
|
|
Post by Gareth Williams on Sept 22, 2011 11:35:14 GMT
Blimey...dangerous place then..Capstone...? What is really dangerous is me agreeing with Collin
|
|
|
Post by stevesue on Sept 22, 2011 13:22:58 GMT
We are able to support the event as it is not too far away, but do wish the council could be more flexible with camping arrangements. It would benefit the whole event with more kite flyers attending and putting on a better display for the public. The councils are always saying they want to attract more visitors to the local area, and when they have an a chance to do this, they do not want to be flexible, and instead kite flyers go to other events.
|
|
Old bog
Was that an Axel?
Posts: 178
|
Post by Old bog on Sept 24, 2011 17:32:19 GMT
You should E Mail the comments from this page to them. Bog.
|
|
|
Post by C2LLN on Sept 26, 2011 21:51:47 GMT
Blimey...dangerous place then..Capstone...? What is really dangerous is me agreeing with Collin And...Collin was left speechless after reading Gareth's post! So speechless all I can do is duplicate here a post I made elsewhere: A kite festival is obviously a 'fair weather' event if paying public are expected to pay and attend on the day....a shower on the festival day will see the numbers attending drop substantially. Likewise predicted bad weather forecasts have the same effect. So it is a bit of a gamble....
Unlike Teston (and I am looking a long way back, and only think..) the Capstone Kite Festival was an event the public paid to attend? When the sun shone and the wind blew....it was jam packed with captive public, due to its location, and car parking was an issue with fields being opened as overflow parks! With a good mix of varied traders, live music, bar, fairground and much more, it really was a nice event with lots of flying space for us the kitists.
I can remember the 'success' events well, but it all seems a bit disjointed to me these days, the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing? Just my opinion that's only based on the trickle of information that filters out.....pics from 2009, note the campers!:So, how did Capstone festival go? Any reports?
|
|
|
Post by Gareth Williams on Sept 27, 2011 11:28:02 GMT
Just my 2p worth but:
Very windy and very turbulent. Public mixing with invited flyers with no consideration for their own (or anyone else's safety). Event stewards who didn't. Barriers that seemed to be designed to keep the kite flyers away from the trees but were ignored by everyone anyway. Gerty lost one of her favourite kites (which had put up many sterling battles with a variety of trees in the past). I gave up flying early afternoon as I didn't want to lose/damage any more kites this year.
But my dogs had a good day out.
|
|
|
Post by stevesue on Sept 27, 2011 12:28:56 GMT
Just wanted to add my thoughts about Sunday, lovely big open space, but it was very windy too windy at times. when we arrived steward did not even seem sure that a kite event was taking place, not a good start, they did not improve, ropes and barriers put up, but no signs warning the general public to stay out, and the stewards did not keep people back, families with small babies sitting under large inflatables, various children and people trying to fly kites. a recipe for disaster. But on the positive side, we had nice day meeting up with other flyers.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2011 17:43:48 GMT
This would be the third teddy drop I have been involved with and dealing with the same person from the Medway events teams each time. This was the worst for the total lack of understanding why we need a clear area for the teddies & kids running around in. Nowhere near enough barrier rope & stakes. We spent so much time trying to keep people out of the area, and I was relieved to stop early in the afternoon before we had any injuries.
|
|
|
Post by malcolmf on Sept 27, 2011 20:01:49 GMT
I completely agree with the comments made about the "event stewards", they did not have a clue. There are several issues to take up with the Medway events officer, as we had informed them that there need to be roped off area for the Teddy bear parachuting, and a separate area for the general public to fly. Any briefing to the stewards should have involved either Syd or myself as we have been the contacts between KKF and Medway.
The event was supposed to be a joint Kite and bike day as Medway Council wanted to promote the new bike trail through Capstone, so they had decided that the area where the other traders were set up was for the promotion of the bike track. Which seemed to be a lot of room for very little.
It seems that this the new regimes we have to live with in this financial times with some councils wanting to control and not co-ordinate with kiters.
Having spoken with the evnet officer, during he day she was very please with the kiting side of the event.
We can only try to educate officials, if they do not want to learn from us, there is very little we can do about it.
A big thank you to every-one who came along to support Capstone, whether from within KKF or other kiters from Brighton, Essex or elsewhere.
|
|
|
Post by Gareth Williams on Sept 27, 2011 20:20:22 GMT
A big thank you to every-one who came along to support Capstone, whether from within KKF or other kiters from Brighton, Essex or elsewhere. A big plus for me was meeting with the Essex Kite Group again. A great bunch of people. Oh and that mob from Sussex are OK too I suppose ;D
|
|
|
Post by ekim on Sept 27, 2011 23:16:16 GMT
I agree with the comments posted above. Stewards were there aplenty and seemed to spend all day talking. A good day nevertheless and one I thoroughly enjoyed, just a shame about the excessive breeze at times. Steve discovered that you are never to old to climb trees. Im sure that C2lln will accept the donation for a kite in a tree!! Some photos can be found on my Flickr photostream here www.flickr.com/photos/prototyper/sets/72157627768603764/Mike
|
|
|
Post by evets on Oct 3, 2011 17:34:08 GMT
Im sure that C2lln will accept the donation for a kite in a tree!! /sets/72157627768603764/ [/url] Mike [/quote] i wasn't flying it only rescuing it! Incidental did any one get a photo of my Teddy in the air i forgot my camera!
|
|