Look Up! St Annes International Kite Festival Takes Over the Fylde Coast This Weekend
By Elizabeth Douglass | Nifty UK Radio
If you're wondering where to go this weekend and fancy something a little different, there is a very good reason to head towards the Fylde coast.
Just remember to look up.
The St Annes International Kite Festival is filling the skies above St Annes Beach with colour this weekend, bringing together spectacular kites and expert flyers from across the UK and beyond.
Running from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 September, the festival takes place around St Annes Pier and has become one of the area's most eye-catching family events.
And when we say kites, forget the little diamond-shaped thing you attempted to fly in the local park as a child before it became permanently attached to a tree.
These are on an entirely different scale.
Flying cows, whales, stingrays — and even hippos
Visitors can expect enormous inflatable creations including octopuses, whales, stingrays, dogs, cows and hippos soaring above the beach, alongside impressive two-line and four-line stunt kite displays.
Five flying arenas are being used across the beach, with specialist kite teams demonstrating exactly what can be achieved with enough skill, enough wind and presumably considerably more patience than most of us possess.
The festival began on Friday, including its spectacular illuminated evening flying.
If you've missed that, however, there is still plenty happening this weekend.
Saturday 5 September: kite flying from 11am until 5pm, with the fairground continuing into the evening.
Sunday 6 September: kite flying from 11am until 4pm.
As with any event involving the British weather and objects specifically designed to rely upon it, timings and displays are naturally subject to conditions. Organisers advise that the programme can change for safety reasons.
More than just kites
There's plenty happening at ground level too.
New for 2026 is an artisan market in the Promenade Gardens, showcasing local producers, while visitors will also find food and drink stalls and a fairground.
There's also a new Kite Festival Art Trail through St Annes town centre. Fifteen shop windows have been decorated with colourful kite artwork created by local primary school pupils and painted by community art studio Durose Studios.
It's free and self-guided, with hidden letters to discover along the route and the chance to enter a prize draw.
It's a clever addition because it encourages visitors to explore beyond the seafront and support the shops, cafés and independent businesses in the town centre too.
Making a day of it
For those of us travelling from Greater Manchester, St Annes is close enough to make this a proper day out without requiring military-grade holiday planning.
Take in the festival, wander along the promenade, explore the town centre, find somewhere for lunch and enjoy a few hours beside the sea.
St Annes-on-the-Sea railway station is only a short walk from the beach, while drivers are being encouraged to consider car parks away from the seafront because the area is expected to be extremely busy. Additional event parking is also being signposted.
Dog owners should also be aware that the usual dog exclusion zone applies around parts of the beach beside St Annes Pier. However, the organisers have included a flying arena outside that zone, so there are still places where you can enjoy the spectacle with your four-legged member of the family.
Sometimes the simple days are the best ones
There is something rather lovely about an event like this.
You don't need to understand kite flying. You don't need expensive equipment. You don't particularly need a plan.
You can simply stand on a beach with thousands of other people and watch somebody somehow persuade an enormous inflatable whale to fly through the Lancashire sky.
Not everything enjoyable has to be complicated.
And perhaps that's something worth remembering when we're constantly being encouraged to spend more, travel further and cram more into our weekends.
Sometimes a trip to the seaside, something good to eat and a sky full of ridiculous flying animals will do very nicely indeed.
So if you're sitting in Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside or elsewhere across Greater Manchester wondering what to do this weekend, St Annes might just be worth the trip.
Just keep one eye on the weather.
And the other on the flying hippos.
The St Annes International Kite Festival continues on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 September 2026 at St Annes Beach. The event is weather dependent, so check the latest information from Discover Fylde before travelling.
Keep listening to Nifty UK Radio on DAB across Greater Manchester, online at niftyukradio.co.uk and on your smart speaker for more ideas, events and things worth discovering across the North West.
Elizabeth Douglass writes for Nifty UK Radio about local life, days out, community, business and the people and places worth discovering.
