The
Dunstable Downs Kite Festival has become something of an annual fixture for us.
We missed last year because my husband was in Pakistan, otherwise the family
friendly nature of the day and the beautiful location has us looking forward to
coming back.
This
year we went with my sisters, my parents and my dad-in-law. Dad-in-law hails
from Lahore which has probably the most famous and well-loved kite festival in
the world, with people flocking there in spring from all over the world. He
described to us how it has become a city-wide party with people ordering
special food and dragging their sound systems up to the roof, where they fly
their kites from. I explained Dunstable was sedate in comparison, but still
lots of fun.
We
have had a hotter than usual summer this year, so I wondered if it would be
windy enough for kites, but there was a thunderstorm the night before and when
we got to Dunstable Downs we found it super windy. As always there were
professional kite displays and half the fun for me was seeing how many
different and unique kites we could spot. The little ones all got their own
kites (£2 from Wilkinson, which was much cheaper than anywhere else) and
Darling proved to be a dab hand at keeping hers up for ages.
Something
else I like about the festival is the stalls they have selling toys and crafts,
there were less than previous years this time, but my mum and I bought local
honey from one of the stallholders, freshly extracted from the hive two days
ago.
One
of the helpful elements about the festival is that it is held next door to the
visitor centre, so there is a canteen and toilets. Sometimes my whole life
seems to be planned around where the toilets are – whether for the babies who
want to go one after the other (but never together), or my mum and
mother-in-law neither of whom seem to have a bladder, or because we need to
make wudhu.
We
brought a lovely lunch between us to share: pizza and chips, chicken
sandwiches, kebabs, chicken nuggets and lots of fresh fruit.
After
lunch we out away our kites and cool bags and decided to move further away from
the kite-flyers and enjoy the beautiful scenery of the Downs. The sun and the
rain clouds turned the patchwork of fields and hills gold and dark by turn and
it was soul soothing just to sit and watch the scenery and see the little ones
playing and running around without having to stop them or tell anyone to
quieten down.
I
would definitely recommend a trip to the Dunstable Downs Kite Festival if you
have not been before. I found it a good family-friendly option for a large
family in terms of cost (free), parking, toilets and space to just be yourself.
It is always somewhere where I have never felt self-conscious or out of place
as I sometimes do as a hijab-wearing Muslimah in new places. Good, clean,
healthy, outdoor fun alhamdulillah.
No comments:
Post a Comment