PHOTOS-Cardiff Harbour Festival

On the weekend beginning Friday 26th August, 2011 the Cardiff Harbour Festival began a full Bank Holiday weekend of activities around Cardiff Bay. (The old Tiger Bay to the rest of the world!)



The Roald Dahl Plas was transformed into a busy mecca of food stalls, fish filleting demonstrations with activities and performances for the kids.
There was the British Fish Craft Championships on the Sunday and on the Monday the Welsh National Oyster Opening Championships. There were also some fair ground rides to get that all important view of the area aswell.
The Sky Flyer seemed to get incredibly close to the Wales Millennium Centre but never THAT close though.

On the man-made water lagoon were many tall-ships including The Ruth and The Matthew. These ships were extremely busy all weekend along with the charity based vessel Challenge Wales.
In previous years the whole of the Cardiff Bay basin seemed to be full of boats with some races taking place but this year the waters were very quiet considering it was a harbour festival.

Moving from the water to the air and over the 3 days there were aerial displays by Swansea based display crew Team Ospreys. The three Russian Yak 52’s approached from the Bristol Channel and gave a cracking display to the awaiting crowds.
They circled the bay and created many shapes in formation with speeds of upto 200mph! Team Osprey havent got any sponsors and finance all their own shows! But im sure they were paid by Cardiff Council for their amazing display!




Next up were the famous Breitling Wing Walkers. They are the only aerobatic formation wingwalking team and performed a breathtaking sequence of acrobatic manoeuvres and handstands whilst strapped to the top wings of the two Boeing Stearman biplanes.
This display seemed to be much closer to the many thousands of spectators whom had turned up to view this spectacular. Flying quite low and close to the St Davids Spa Hotel – it truly was an amazing display.








Also as part of this Harbour Festival there was the UK’s very first Balloon Art Fiesta held throughout the Red Dragon Centre. It featured 30,000 balloons all arranged keeping close to the nautical theme. Among the creations was a clown fish, from Finding Nemo fame, which has been made from 4,500 orange and white balloons.

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