AEOLIAN.CO.UK - Archive - 2003 - Middle Wallop (August) Kite and Buggy Festival

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Middle Wallop (August) Kite & Buggy Festival

Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th August 2003

Location: Middle Wallop Airfield, A343 Andover to Salisbury Road, Andover, Hampshire
Organised by: Roy and Hayley, Kites Up & the British Buggy Club

HOT HOT HOT!

The festival took place on the hottest weekend ever recorded! Temperatures reached in excess of 35 degrees C and it certainly was a scorcher!

Saturday began with no wind, and a heavy mist. However this soon burned off in the hot sun, and at 10am the wind picked up to a steady 10mph, just perfect for a good day's buggying, which many took advantage of. Meanwhile the STACK competitions were in full swing in the arena, and they even got ahead of schedule. Just as well really, as Sunday was a very hot 'no wind day' until a weather front started to come in at 2pm, bringing with it 10-15mph winds and a few small clouds. Many people had already packed up and left at this point, disappointed by the low wind and the stifling heat, from which there was no respite except to find an air-conditioned car! (or a cold beer)

There was a good trade in beer, ice-cream and ice cold smoothies, however the kite traders had a fairly disappointing weekend as there were almost no 'general public' to be seen at Middle Wallop, which impacted on sales. Middle Wallop is usually more of a "kite fliers' festival" rather than for the public, and it certainly was the case this weekend.

We were pleased to see that the motorised scooters, bikes and boards were banned on the site, for insurance and safety reasons. The portable toilets were a great improvement on last time, with some sited closer to the main camping area as well in as the usual location, plus a man came round regularly to clean them out.

In the beer tent we had fun with Airzookas, which fire a harmless blast of air (available from GadgetShop amongst other places!) and is very cooling and welcome after a day in the sun! There were a few games of 'Frustration' (a 'pop-o-matic board game!') which is, as the name suggests, very frustrating! Ian Meredith kept the children and adults entertained with beer drinking games, arm-wrestling matches, and a childrens' challenge (aka how to tire them out before bedtime - make them run across the field four times!). The night fly on Saturday night was good, and plenty of people were in and around the beer tent to help drain the barrels.

One of the nicest things to experience over the whole weekend was paddling in the cool water of a paddling pool - ahhhhh!
Ian Meredith took it to the extremities on Friday night and went skinny dipping!

We had lots of fun buggying on Friday evening & Saturday morning, so didn't take many pictures, but the best are below.

Panoramic views of Middle Wallop

Car parking and camping area

Traders stalls and STACK banners

Lots of kites and buggies!


Plenty of power kites

Quite busy!	Delta serpents flying in the blue	Carl & James Robertshaw

Relaxation in the beer tent... with the BBC boys, Gary Tyrrell, Dave Mulcahy and Will "Fire At Will" "Wiggle"

Georgio and his Posh Pancakes... but for how long??	Forty winks...	... for Five-Forty

Get yer kit out...	Traders stalls	STACK arena