Colourful skies were promised at the annual Fuerteventura Kite Festival in November this year.

Kite flying is the focus of several popular festivals all over Europe, with various countries having held regular events for many years now. In the UK there are already a number of established festivals such as the Bristol Kite Festival, which this year celebrated its 22nd anniversary. The Bristol festival attracts kite flyers from all over the world including some of the best display teams and in 2007 featured the world's largest kite. The Portsmouth International Kite Festival is another big UK event, held on the second August Bank Holiday weekend each year. Other UK kite festivals take place in Weymouth, Swindon, Maidstone, Brighton, Dover and Blackheath, London.

Europe's biggest kite festival is held in April each year at Berck sur Mer in France. This is another kiting event that has over 20 years of history and attracted around half a million spectators in 2009. The festival also includes Rokkaku kite fighting displays which derive from the Japanese tradition that dates back over 250 years.

On Fuerteventura the kite festival also has some tradition, having been held since 1987. The festival was held on 'La Playa del Burro' beach which is in the sand dunes south of Corralejo. Referred to locally as the Dunas de Corralejo Natural Park, this a protected nature reserve on Fuerteventura's north east coast that stretches for almost 5 miles. The three day festival started with a day of free flying on Friday and the main competition displays took place on Saturday, culminating with a display of night kite flying during the evening. On the Sunday, children could enjoy flying one of the 150 free kites that were given away and looking out for the sweets that were dropped by parachuting teddy bears. A kite fighting competition also took place during the day, followed by a grand firework display in the evening. This year Fuerteventura's Kite Festival took place between the 5th and 8th of November.