Features
Kiters honour Coolum festival
Anne-Louise Brown 23rd July 2010
Queensland Kite Fliers Association president Alan Bayley says Coolum is his favourite place to launch his collection of kites.
THE Coolum Kite Festival may have lost its puff, but diehard kiters will be flying its banner when they take to the beach at Coolum in September.
Alan Bayley, a veteran kiter and president of the Queensland Kite Fliers Association, said Coolum was his favourite place to launch his collection of kites and the festival, which was cancelled in March, was his favourite event.
He said a contingent of about 20 fliers association members would head to the Sunshine Coast on September 25-26 to keep the festival’s spirit alive.
“You just can’t let something like the kite festival die,” Mr Bayley said.
“I was there back in 2001 when the first festival was planned and watched it grow.
“Even though there will be no festival this year a group of us have decided we’ll come in September for a fly.”
Craig Hansen, a New Zealand kiter, will head to Australia for the gathering, bringing with him a collection of huge kites, some up to 20 metres long.
Mr Bayley also flies large kites, and plans to have a plethora of bobbing sea creatures floating in the sky.
The festival was cancelled for 2010 because it had become too big for the organising committee to handle, with crowds of up to 45,000 flocking to the beach to watch.
The former president of the festival board, Noel Mooney, declined to comment yesterday.
A 10th anniversary kite festival is being planned for next year and there have been discussions about turning the festival into a biannual event.
At the time that it was cancelled, the then Tourism Sunshine Coast chairman John Atkins said everything would be done to support the festival.
“It would be very disappointing to see one of the major free family events on the Coast go. I don’t think the community of Coolum will let it,” Mr Atkins said.
“However, I understand it is very difficult to get volunteers. It seems everyone is time poor.”
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