Who are Flying Fish?
Flying Fish is a husband-and-wife dual-line kite pair, consisting of Irma and Lex. Born and raised in the Netherlands, we moved to the UK well over 20 years ago.
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We first got into kite-flying in 2009, and were introduced to pair-flying in 2011. We made our festival debut at Southampton in 2012, and 2018 is our 7th festival season. Following on from our Southampton debut, we have flown at kite festivals in Brighton, Basingstoke, Malmesbury, Portsmouth, Weymouth, Dunstable, Exmouth, Streatham Common, Herne Bay, Bognor Regis and Minchinhampton, as well as at Thornbury Carnival and Northampton Balloon Festival.
Our primary practice flying field is Stoney Cross Plain in the New Forest, a field we often share with cattle, donkeys, horses, and especially ponies.
Our primary practice flying field is Stoney Cross Plain in the New Forest, a field we often share with cattle, donkeys, horses, and especially ponies.
The name Flying Fish goes back to our very first pair of kites: Joel Scholz-designed 'Fish' and 'Shark' kites, which are still part of our quiver. Lex is the leader of Flying Fish, responsible for most of the choreography and for calling the moves; Irma’s job is to follow, mirror and maintain synchronicity. As sharks naturally chase fish (rather than the other way around), Irma flew the 'Shark' kite in those early days, following Lex's 'Fish' kite. In a symbolic nod to this first set of pair kites, Irma usually flies the darker or more aggressively coloured kite of a pair.
Our festival appearances over the years
Our quiver of paired kites
We have a full set of modern Airdynamics T5 kites for competition as well as for flying at festivals. In addition, we have a range of dual-line kites to fly at festivals; most of these are 'old school' kites. Recently, we have expanded a bit into flying quad-line kites at festivals, and we also have a few sets of single-line kites to brighten up relevant festival slots. M