Kitesurfing Armada comes to Skegness!
The Armada Events team have been running the Kitesurfing Armada Festival on Hayling Island on the south coast for 7 years now, and the festival has been growing every year. There has been a goal to launch a second event in the UK for some time, somewhere which will enable us to bring the Armada’s blend of kitesurfing, live music, entertainment and fundraising to a different part of the country, but the right opportunity hadn’t come along before this year.
Skegness has a stunning sandy beach, good wind stats and a fantastic area of grassland behind the beach where a festival can be built, easily linking the kitesurfing zone with the festival area. The plan is to launch the Armada in Skegness with a relatively small festival, to get the foundations right and the relationships with local partners in place, in order to grow the event over coming years. And after recent visits and working closely with the Lincolnshire Coastal Bid, who together with the BKSA are helping bring the event to Skegness, we are proud to launch today.
Armada Events Director, Dan Charlish said, ‘This is an exciting opportunity and we are looking forward to our first ever event in Skegness. We want to create an event everyone can enjoy. It will be another fantastic opportunity to bring the kitesurfing community together, but also to give local people a chance to see the best of British talent at the British Kitesurfing Championships, to learn about the sport and the gear from all the brands and pro’s on site and even have a go a flying a powerkite themselves for the first time. We will add in some great food, a beach bar and some live music stages, alongside support for local charities and stalls for local businesses and it should all come together nicely!’
Pro kitesurfer Lewis Crathern, who has been an ambassador for the Armada since the first event in 2013, is fully involved and visited the site last week. Check out his little film of the plans for the event here.
Lincolnshire Coastal Destination BID Manager Lisa Collins said, ‘We are delighted to be sponsoring this brand new and exciting festival, it will bring in large numbers of new visitors to the area and enable us to showcase our fabulous beach, which is undoubtedly one of our greatest assets. This event is for everyone, from participants, to those wanting to have a go, to spectators. I’m confident that the business community will welcome such a festival to the town and see the benefits to the local economy.’
Andy Gratwick, head of the BKSA said, 'We work closely with the Armada Team on the Hayling Island event and its great to be expanding this partnership to Skegness. As the NGB for kitesports we love intiatives which raise awareness of our sport, promote the British Kitesurfing Championships and the talented riders we have taking part and enable people that are new to the sport to get involved. The new Kitesurfing Armada in Skegness will tick all these boxes and we are looking forward to delivering a fantastic event.'
As it’s the first event in Skegness, the focus is to get everyone involved so tickets for 2019 are free. You just need to register in advance here and we will see you at Skegness in July! For all festival information and to register for free tickets please see www.armadaevents.co.uk/skegness