Ostend '99

The Ostend festival was held this year on the weekend of 10 & 11 July 1999.

Ostend '98 will be remembered by Crosslines for a broken down seacat, gale force winds and pouring rain. Ostend '99 however will be remembered for three days of glorious sunshine.

Friday...

We decided to make a long weekend of it this year and got down to Dover for a relaxing ferry journey at about 9:00. The sea was flat and the sun was out. Once over in Calais a short drive up the motorway saw us pulling into the car park of the Hotel in Ostend just before lunch.

After a few hours flying in the afternoon we got our selves ready for a pilots meeting in the evening. This enabled the organisers to work out who was there and set a running order for the following day.

What a glorious sunset - where is Susanne?

The Brits were out in force. In addition to Crosslines, Bi-Dance and Punchline arrived Friday evening and Art of Air were due to arrive Saturday morning.

Ostend is an interesting town. It seems to have so many small different quarters. Some areas are good for eating some are good for chillout drinks overlooking the beach. Other areas are specially good for partying.

Bottleje Bar in Ostend - Mark and Martin with one of Art of Air with his nose in a glass

One street was a mini Nottinghill Carnival, complete with outside sound system, music stage, bars and street vendors selling all sorts of food. Crosslines found the Bottleje bar, 100's of different Belgium beers to sample and choose from. We were to return here more than once this weekend!

Saturday...

A glimpse out of the hotel window Saturday morning was greeted by a clear blue sky and a team of three Hawaians being flown at the other end of the beach. Art of Air had arrived.

You had to arrive or get up early Saturday morning to beat the tide. Crosslines having had several hours work on Friday afternoon opted for a civilised breakfast and then set up camp at the areana. By 10:30 most of the arena was under water so there was no chance of flying in the morning. However, high tide would be later on Sunday.

Buz Lightyear flys over the beach at Ostend

By lunch time the tide eventually started revealing enough arena for some individual demos. There was a tight schedule with something going on all the time. Dual line ballet demos were interspersed with some impresive large single line kites. The only real complaints were that the arena was on the small side for team, most of us opted for short lines, which makes for a hurried ballet and the PA was just not adequate. One small speaker which could only be heard from time to time.

The afternoon was concluded with a mega team of about 15 flyers. This was lead by one of the Red Barons. An opening call of sequential take of imediatly followed by "round the world" certainly makes you pay attention.

Sunday...

Another morning glimpse out of the window was again welcomed by clear blue sky and sunshine.

A quick breakfast and Crosslines were out on the beach for an hours flying before the tide came in. Bliss, a cross shore breeze of about 12mph and as smooth as anything. If only conditions could always be like this.

Today the tide came up the beach even further than Saturday and then seemed very reluctant to retreat. The organisers also seemed reluctant to come out and organise. They had civic duties to honour.

When things finally got underway it was all a bit difficult. It looked as if half the population of Belgium was trying to sun bath on the beach, they were lying head to toe. A large clear area which was the arena was just to tempting for some. Some people found it to be a convenient route across the beach othes simply put down their towels and lay on them others again decided it was a good place to dig deep holes and build sand castles! The only way to make things safe was some self help and the teams soon had the arena cleared and leveled. We then had to position ourselves logistically to keep joe public a sensible distance from the action.

So Sunday was a victim of too nice weather. We must not complain we all came home feeling relaxed and tanned. It would have been good to have got some more flying time in but you can't have everything. The weekend was far more pleasant than last year.

Thanks for the invite and see you next year. (July '98)

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