The 14th Festival - 2006
Résultats :
Dates : 9th to 17th september
Guest of honour : New Zealand
Theme « Our Planet: Stroll Between Flora and Fauna »
The Delegations – 37 countries
Australia, Austria, Brazil, Belgium, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Martinique (Overseas territory), Mexico, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Philippines, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan (Republic of China), Tasmania, USA, Vietnam
Highlights from the programme:
During all the week: Taking flights of giant kites. Taking flight of Maoris traditional kites, Kapa Haka and Waiata shows. The creators' workshop: demonstration and creation of artistic kites. Stunt kites ballets: demonstrations by the international teams. Demonstrations of Buggy and Kite Jumping. Kite Fights with international champions. The official kite schools: stunt kite, fighting kite, photography and aerial video. Wind corridors: Aeolian music and structures. Childhood and Youth Area.Discovery of the kite world for the disabled people. The Challenge for the Earth, supported by the Hulot Foundation for Nature and Mankind , and ADEME . Exhibitions: Kites of the world; the “Kite Wind Generator”; Kite in India , Philately of Kite. Screenings: Dieppe Scène Nationale; Entertainments: stilts, jugglers, theatre, parade, concerts.
9 th /10 th of September
Stunt kite French Championship
Fighting kite Junior French Championship
16 th /17 th of September
Fighting kite World Cup
Creative Kite Contest "Fauna and Flora".
"Coup de coeur" of the French Kite Club.
Night flight: sound and light show
In the Village: Press office, reception desks, meetings with the delegations, demonstrations of kite making, kite shops, bar-restaurant.
Guest of Honour: New Zealand
For the first time in the world, a Maori team presented the ancestral traditions of kite.
Program: creation and taking flights of traditional kites; performance of “Kapa Haka” and “Waiata”(songs and dances); traditional Maori games (Manu Kopua, poi).
The visitors had the opportunity to learn traditional songs and dances. Thanks to various activities, the public discovered the greater part of the musical inheritance bounded to the manu tukutuku (kite making) traditions and to the Maori culture in general.
The Maori team carried out the Karakia (traditional prayers). Carrying “spiritual Maoris wishes”, these prayers consider Atua, the ancestors, and those present as the “guardian and protector of our environment.”
They strongly advise people to respect and to take care of each other.
Some of these traditional prayers are in keeping with the kite traditions, as a favour to the vegetative resources' divinities. Spiritual songs are sung as well during the kites' ascent. They celebrate the combination of human elements with natural resources used for kite making. They long to see people and nature co-existing harmoniously.
The New Zealand exhibition stand presented the cultural specificities of the country.
The Practice of Maori Kite
Maori kite traditions are thoroughly linked to “Matariki” (small beam of stars, also called the Pleiades). They are historically indissociable . In the Maori culture, kites are considered as the link between earth and sky.
From the thousands kites decorated with shells, feathers, leafs, handmade objects and sculptures, which were flying at the beginning of the colonialist area, there is nothing left nowadays.
Almost all the ancient practices and Maori games have been abandoned a few times after the arrival of the first missionaries. At this time, the Maoris and the Europeans accused the missionaries of “suppressing the indigenous' harmless leisure”.
Collective leisure was prohibited and trespassers were prosecuted, although the people was obviously fond of it.
When this tradition ended, the wonderful collections of kites from the tribes disappeared and – with them – the most important time of the year, dedicated to kite making and kite technology.
Despite the prohibitions and the typical missionary dislike of the sport educators for indigenous games, the renewal of the Maori culture since the 80s, shows the return of traditional kite.
The expertise of kite making was found in different tribes, among written and oral recollections, and in traditional writings.
The return of traditional Maori kites had an additional impulse when the Maori New Years' Day and the Matariki celebrations also recovered a place of honour. The sky of New Zealand welcomes again the colour and splendour of traditional Maori kite flying.
Peter LYNN
“He makes big beaches smaller.” That is what the kite world observers say of Peter Lynn, New Zealand's roving ambassador for kites.
The Peter Lynn aerial circus features big--often huge--kites, unusual kite-associated creations, and traction devices using the pulling power of kites. His kites range form the hundred-foot Octopus to the realistic Manta Ray, from the Tri-D Box with Maori designs from New Zealand's original Polynesian inhabitants to the new “Myrtle the Turtle”. In addition to being large, they are brightly coloured, often whimsical and fly well.
Peter is always pushing boundaries, he makes the show.
His reputation on the international level is already made. Peter Lynn is considered as an emblematic figure in the kite world.
---------------------------------------------
MANGALORE – India in all its Splendour
Mangalore, town situated on the west coast of India , is a living mosaic of the Indian culture's pluralism. It intertwines multicultural levels, modern and traditional elements, in a harmonious mixture of humanity.
Created in 1998, the team Mangalore participated in several festivals of various areas of India . As the time went by, the team used the kite world to present its cultural specificities in the world.
Team Mangalore's kites are inspired by the traditional folklore and theatre of the south-west coast of Karnataka and Kerala. Each kite is handmade and designed by the members of the team who follow Mr Sri Ganesh Somayaji's (a famous modern artist) advice.
“Spreading happiness with kites” is the team Mangalore's device.
They organize kite workshops for the children and kite festivals on Panambur beach's shore (next to Mangalore) every summer since 1998.
-----------------------------------------------
Fighting Kite Junior French Championship
Since a short while, fighting kite clubs start learning to young people between 12 and 18 years old. Then, they find a mean to direct their energy. This martial practice requires an effort of concentration and discipline, very appreciated by the young. The idea is to organize inter towns meetings in the coming years.
The young people are quickly autonomous and take themselves in the game. Quite cheap, fighting kite is very accessible to young people and managers in terms of budget.
For the first time, a Junior French Cup of fighting kite took place in Dieppe . Reserved to teenagers, it was opened to young people from Dieppe and its area.
The Fighting Kite Junior French Championship was opened to teenagers.
-----------------------------------------------
The Challenge for the Earth
“Coup de Coeur” of the Hulot Foundation for Nature and Mankind , the 2006 edition of Dieppe International Kite Festival, centred on the protection of the environment, was a free gallery for the different local actors and the invited delegations.
The public benefited from various exhibition spaces.
The Challenge for the Earth is indeed a great manifestation of national mobilization in favour of the protection of our planet. Started on the 24 May 2005 by the Hulot Foundation for Nature and Mankind and Ademe ( French Energy Conservation Agency ), this manifestation of national mobilization aims to assemble all the French around the protection of the planet: the Challenge encourages everyone to get involved, individually or collectively, to reduce its ecological impact by making simple and concrete daily acts.
Today, more than 500 000 French people already got involved. The Challenge enables to be easily relieved.
With this aim in view, representatives of the Foundation were present in Dieppe , and kites at the colours of the challenge flew away during the festival.
A video on the climate change entitled “Challenge for the Earth” has been screened in the village and small green “Challenge for the Earth” books have been distributed.
http://www.defipourlaterre.org/
