THOUSANDS of people decided to go fly a kite at the weekend.

The 12th annual Kite Festival was held at Lydiard Park.

Organised by the White Horse Kite Flyers, it took three months to prepare for the big weekend.

Last year the Swindon-based group cancelled the event due to foot and mouth disease.

It was the first time the free event had been held at Lydiard Park for seven years.

David Robinson, secretary of the White Horse Flyers, said: "For the past seven years we have been holding the festival at the Science Museum in Wroughton but that got too expensive.

"We are a kite club and we just want to encourage people to fly kites. It is not a commercial event.

"What we are trying to do is bring a family event to the park."

There was a range of exotic kites on display.

Among them were para-foils, which work in a similar process to the wings of a biplane, and formation kite flying.

There was also a children's kite workshop, jugglers and various stalls.