The Viennese Kite Festival Fall 1997

There isn't very much I can report because I was only there on the first of the two days. On Sunday it was raining, and so I decided to stay at home. The weather on Saturday was very windy and cool. Although it sometimes looked like it would start to rain soon, many interested visitors approached.
If I would have known that I will stay at home the second day then I wouldn't have been so stingy with the photos.
Thanks to the friendly assistance from Ernst KoflAIR of the Kite-O-Holix I can now deliver a few stills from my video tapes.
But my offer to take over any (no more) used PC video capturing hardware for free is still valid... :-)
By the way: You can click on all of the pictures on this page to view them full size. Please note that the originals are 20 to 100 kB large!

Line Laundry
A huge "Kabrt-Schraubine" was spinning in the wind high above our heads during the festival and pointed the right direction for visitors.

Twins
Two pairs of colorful "Legs" are dancing to the rhythm of the wind. Beyond them a quadline kite named "Twin" joins them. Looking at the single line kite that pressed itself cheeky between them you can guess the windspeed on that Saturday.

Far Eastern
The Legs are visited by an "Edo" kite. On this picture its real size can hardly be estimated, but the next two pictures are close-ups of two of the many Mini-Edos built by Manfred Klejna from Vienna.
I had serious problems with the Macro-range on my Camera! On the picture at the right hand side (which is a bit blurred due to the Autofocus concentrating to the line) the master himself holds one of his works in front of the lens. These kites are not bigger than 10 to 12 inches.
Manfred builds them following the original style from handmade paper and splitted bamboo which is taken from the frameworks of old Chinese houses. He uses natural paint for painting the motifs. He owns great knowledge about the far eastern kite culture and is well aware of the meaning behind the different motifs ("Every kite tells its own story", he said to me.)
By the way: For an Edo of this size he works approximately one day.

finally named
The quadline kite in the center of the picture is called Vision and is seen rather seldom here in Vienna. It is said that because of its construction it behaves somewhat like a dual-liner although it is steered by four lines. Therefore it should be suitable especially for pilots who can't get away from their dual-line steering style. The kite beneath shows its name big on the sail. That way nobody has to remind me, like many readers of this page did with the name of the Vision. :-) Thank's to all who told me!

Eye-catcher
The "Cody" kite of the Drachenverein Parndorf can already be called a tradition at the Viennese kitefestivals. As always it got remarkable attention from experts and audience due to its impressing size. One of the highlights at every festival is the launch of this kite with great effort of several strong helpers. Unfortunately it didn't stay in the air very long this year, so people had more opportunities to see it from a short distance. With this one I had no problems with the Macro-range on the camera! :-)