France’s Dune de Pyla, the highest sand dune in Europe, is once again hosting a weekend of paragliding fun and freestyle frolics by the sea: the 6th edition of the festival will start the season off for acro fiends, cross country hounds and pleasure flyers alike, all under the watchful gaze of an eager public. Four time winner of the contest, Charly Piccolo, is donning the hat of director this year, and has concocted an array of interesting tasks for his former competitiors. As well as a round where the 30 competitiors have to perform the manoeuvres asked of them, they have the opportunity to show their own prowess in the freestyle round, and to battle it out head-to-head in the dual (the winner of which gets to take on Charly Piccolo!). A panel of three to five judges (injured pilots, non-flying partners etc) will do the judging.
Entry, which is by post, is 100 Euros before 10 May, 150 thereafter.
In order to minimise environmental impact, the organisation are proposing a car-sharing scheme, and a page of their website, www.wagas-festival.com, is dedicated to this.
