WIRRAL’S International Kite Festival has taken to the skies again – despite some worryingly high winds.

Competitors from across the globe managed to keep hold of their prized exhibits and wow the crowd with ornate designs and intricate stunt flying over the two-day festival.

Fears were growing after a dismal spell of rain on Saturday but the second day of the seventh annual festival saw an array of eye-catching kites launched at New Brighton Dips.

One master of the art, kite-maker and stunt flyer Robert Brasington, 55, had come especially for the event from Tasmania.

He said: “It’s a great event, last year the weather was perfect, the best I’ve seen at a kite event anywhere in 15 years of flying but this year the high winds have made things a little bumpy.

“It’s the luck of draw and you can’t have perfect conditions every year, the feedback we’ve had from members of the public has been amazing.”

Mr Brasington is employed as a designer for a US company but also flies dual-line stunt kites, and sees events like the festival as a perfect way of reaching out to new flyers.

He said: “I was a horticulturalist and it was a late change for me, I got involved when I was 40.

“For stunt flying you need good hand/eye co-ordination. The problem is that the younger generation are sitting inside stuck with their computer games.

“It gives young people fantastic co-ordination but this is outdoors and it’s something real they could get involved with.

“It’s not just images on a computer screen, it’s using a skill.”

Visiting for the first time were Juergen and Gaby Ebbinghaus, from Germany. Mr Ebbinghaus is famous for his flying fish, frogs and other inflatable kites while Mrs Ebbinghaus is renowned for her colourful “wind gardens” and a host of kaleidoscopic, rotating kites.