Berck-sur-Mer celebrates 40 years of kites: Tom and Lila take you to the beach

Tom and Lila's journal — no. 1. Hi, I'm Tom! — And I'm Lila! With our friend Paz, the mascot of the Pas-de-Calais, we have big news: in spring 2027, the kite festival of Berck-sur-Mer turns 40. We got everything ready for you in our Berck-sur-Mer universe.

40 years, let's party!

The International Kite Festival (Rencontres internationales de cerfs-volants) runs from 17 to 25 April 2027: nine days of fun on the beach of Berck-sur-Mer, on France's Opal Coast. It's the 40th edition — the very first festival was held in 1987. Its motto for the anniversary: "40 years of poetry and magic".

On the official 40th anniversary poster, published by the town of Berck-sur-Mer, seen from above, kites draw a big "40" in the sky: rokkakus (six-sided kites), rays, dragons, octopuses, whales, butterflies, fish and funny birds. Sky blue stands for gentleness and freedom, fuchsia pink for creativity. We loved it, so our sky is inspired by it: on the universe page, tap a kite and it loops the loop, press "Blow!" and the whole sky dances.

Official poster of the 40th International Kite Festival — © Town of Berck-sur-Mer. See it, with its story, on the town's website: berck.fr (in French).

It all began with a photo

Lila: "Did you know kites used to be cameras?" In 1888, Arthur Batut hung a camera under a kite: one of the very first photos ever taken from the sky. In the late 1800s, Émile Wenz did the same on Berck beach, which became the most photographed place from the air before the First World War.

Belgian kite flyers who loved photography came to celebrate this every spring. They asked the mayor if they could hold a "Centenary Festival"… and the gathering was born!

What can you see on the beach?

The 2027 programme isn't out yet. But here is what you usually see in Berck:

• Giants of the sky: octopuses, teddy bears, dragons, owls and whales as big as houses.
• The octopus record: kite flyers try to fly about forty of them at once — a world record, if there's enough wind!
• Kite ballets: pilots hold 2 or 4 lines and make their kites dance to music.
• The Garden of Aeolus: hundreds of flowers that grow out of the sand and spin in the wind, made from recycled materials.
• Workshops: kids build their own kite, then get a free first lesson at the flying school.
• Fireworks one evening, telling a story to music.

In 2026, about 450 kite flyers from 28 countries made the trip. And look carefully at the sky: Opale and Marin, two giant teddy bears, are the town's mascot kites!

The lighthouse and the seals

Tom: "My favourite place is the lighthouse!" With its red and white rings, it is about 40 metres tall. It was built from 1949 to 1951 in prestressed concrete — rings held together by cables —, a technique no other lighthouse in France uses. On our page you can even turn it on: the beach switches to night.

Just south of Berck, in the Authie bay, seals come to rest on the sandbanks at low tide: harbour seals (round heads) and grey seals (long snouts). In August 2023, 162 harbour seals were counted there! Our golden rule: stay at least 300 metres away, with binoculars. Tip: punch a small hole in a bookmark and stretch out your arm — if the seal doesn't fit inside the hole, step back.

Your turn to play!

We made five mini-games to warm up before the festival, on the Berck-sur-Mer universe page:

1. Fly your kite with Lila: pull the line, catch the stars, dodge the seagulls.
2. Kite Memory with Feather the owl.
3. Seals of the bay with Pebble: count them through binoculars… without disturbing them!
4. Design your kite with Tom, then download it.
5. Paz's quiz: eight questions and a little kite flyer's diploma.

See you soon in the next issue of the journal. Tom and Lila.

This site is an independent Appynamic project: it is not the official site of the town of Berck-sur-Mer, the festival or the Département. Official information (programme, access) is on cerf-volant-berck.com. Sources (mostly in French): Town of Berck-sur-Mer (the 40th poster), Berck Tourism, the festival's 2024 press kit, Le Figaro Nautisme / AFP, Berck museum (the lighthouse), Le Figaro Nautisme / AFP (the seals). Tom and Lila are characters made up for this universe; Paz is the mascot of the Pas-de-Calais Département.