2009 Kitefest, Ohio. April 4-5

[Mike]

The festival is a little north of Cincinnati.
It's quite a drive but they get up to 20,000 spectators over the two days.
(Except the year they had freezing rain!)

Last year, 180GO! / IKE had their own field and sound system. I don't have any info on the final arrangements for this year.

More information can be found here:
http://www.wguc.org/kitefest/

If you don't want to drive to Ohio, checkout the much closer Glenview festival on the 4th.

[akillip]

Ann and I plan on going this year. Looks like a nice big field to fly in. Will they have a area roped off for the big kites?

Tony Killip

[Mike]

They've had areas roped off differently every year, so I can't promise anything. There's a ton of room so I expect it wont be much of a problem if they don't. Depending on which way the wind is blowing we might be able to squeeze you into one end of the IKE/180GO! field (if we have one again).

[Jeff]

Did the name change again?

[Mike]

The name is the same: The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Kite Fest.

They will have a special roped off field for AKA members again this year. Also an AKA hospitality tent. And special on-site parking.
Public parking will be off-site this year.

AKA members will need a parking pass and need to arrive before 11:00am to park on-site.

There will also be a free dinner on Saturday for AKA members hosted by the local club, P.I.G.S. Aloft.
Those guys are great.
They ask to RSVP to weflykites@cinci.rr.com by Wednesday, April 1, if you are planning to attend the complementary dinner.

P.I.G.S. Aloft is also asking for a few volunteers to serve an hour or so as a safety coordinator or teaching the public to fly dual line kites. Email weflykites@cinci.rr.com if you can help.

Directions – North of Cincinnati just off of I75 at Exit 22 (Tylersville Road). Go East on Tylersville Road and the VOA Park will be on the Left. AKA members who arrive before 11:30am on Saturday or Sunday, should enter from the Tylersville Rd. entrance (in front of the VOA building) and park in back next to the flying fields on "kiters row".

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Here's a link to the parking pass from the Rev forum (we can't post docs on our forum)
http://www.revkites.com/forum/index.php ... st&id=4402

[Mike]

Update:
180GO! will be staying at this hotel:
Wingate Inn and Meridian Conference Center - http://www.wingatehotels.com/Wingate/co ... tyId=30157

The festival web page has maps of the flying fields, and 180GO! will have our own field again this year.
Also, check out the slide show on the same page. Photos of 180GO! (in red IKE shirts) and is that Ken's fish?
http://www.wguc.org/kitefest/kitefest.asp

AKA members also get their own flying field and a free catered dinner on Saturday (see the previous post).

Come on down to a large festival, meet some new folks, and join in the fun!

[Mike]

Roll Call:

I'm going down Friday afternoon/evening, and will return Sunday evening.

[Mike]

Ann and I plan on going this year. Looks like a nice big field to fly in. Will they have a area roped off for the big kites?

Tony Killip

There's two areas roped off for big kites this year.
http://www.wguc.org/kitefest/images/Kit ... or_Map.pdf

[Jeff]

Roll Call:

I'm going down Friday afternoon/evening, and will return Sunday evening.

Ditto

[Pkrekel]

Roll Call:

I'm going down Friday afternoon/evening, and will return Sunday evening.

Ditto

I am doing the same also

Paul

[akillip]

We will leave here Friday morning and should get there early in the Afternoon.

Tony

[Jeepster]

We'll miss this one ... still making our way back from Kite Party. We're in Tulsa tonight. Simply trying to stay ahead of the bad weather and snow.

Wanted to take some kite pictures on the way back home, but found that to be more difficult than I imagined. I had several "perfect" sites in mind. Window Rock, AZ was too dark when we got there ... then the wind was absent the next morning.

Visited a beautiful cliff area just outside of Los Alamos ... north of Santa Fe ... again, too dark when we finally visited there. Although, there was a young guy flying a single line kite ... I'll add one to the travel bag from now on.

Then stopped at Cadillac Ranch in Texas ... the wind was over 25 mph and gusting while we were there. The good thing about the wind was it was from the west ... the Jeep yielded 24 MPG across Texas. Paul can tell you that Jeeps like ours don't see that kind of gas mileage very often ... if ever.

The last two days have yielded nothing but cool weather with mist and rain. I sure miss Huntington Beach ... Jamie has had more kite flying after work, in the mid-Illinois area, than I have since we left California. Hardly seems fair.

Cheers,
Tom

[Frodos Majik]

Roll Call:

I'm going down Friday afternoon/evening, and will return Sunday evening.

Ditto

I am doing the same also

Paul

and I will make four.

and yes that is IKE's aquarium. Boy they got quite a few shots of it in the slide show. How SWEEEEET!!!!

[backdraft]

Roll Call:

I'm going down Friday afternoon/evening, and will return Sunday evening.

Ditto

I am doing the same also

Paul

and I will make four.

and yes that is IKE's aquarium. Boy they got quite a few shots of it in the slide show. How SWEEEEET!!!!

same here, I will make it 5 or 8 if you count all of the Stephenson

[Jeff]

Just a quick reminder for people to RSVP for the dinner by tomorrow...

[Mike]

Just a quick reminder for people to RSVP for the dinner by tomorrow...

Thanks for the reminder Jeff, but I already rsvp'd on behalf of the team (and Paul Krekel)

[Jeepster]

Okay, for those of us living our lives vicariously this past weekend, the Ohio festival was ...


Waiting,
Tom

[Sailor99]

Okay, for those of us living our lives vicariously this past weekend, the Ohio festival was ...

.... flown in ohio (?)

[Jeff]

OUTSTANDING!

I'll have some more to say, and pictures later when I have time, but it was outstanding. The weather held up, no rain.

Winds were variable, to say the least, both in intensity and direction. But I have to say the team handled it well and looked sharper than ever.

It was a great time.

[Mike]

I don't have any photos, so we'll have to wait for someone else to post 'em.

It was a really good time. We had our own field and sound system. Anne announced for us on the mic.
We had large crowds enjoying 180 GO! and we flew almost constantly both days. Since we were the only team on our field we were able to break up the team demos with bouts of playing with the crowds. The spectators really seemed to enjoy our flying and Ann's announcing.

The other demo field had Ann " No 'e' " Vondriska announcing. They had Chicago Fire and the Milwaukee fliers demoing there.

The P.I.G.S. Aloft club were great hosts once again. They run a really smooth and enjoyable festival.