The Red Bull Flugtag is an internationally-hosted event founded in Austria over 20 years ago, and was last held in South Africa in 2002. Cape Town proudly hosted the 123rd event in early December, and it was incredibly hot, crowded and entertaining.
A staggering 220 000 people flocked to the Waterfront to watch over 40 home-made flying contraptions and their creators leap off a ramp into the cold harbour water below. I couldn’t stay for everything, but was there from the start till about 12.30, here are some photos…
A buoy in the water indicated the world record distance set in Germany, an incredible 69m. I’m not sure what the final winning distance was, but when I left, the current champs were at just over 19m.
The participating teams and machines were on display along the quay, and rolled up to the ramp one by one to introduce themselves and perform a 30 second skit before plunging into the abyss.
Some highlights included ‘The Mile High Club’, who set a record for height when their human catapult shot a brave dude to 20m or some silly height thereabouts, ‘Journey to the Sun: Vader meets Pegasus’ who had a bit of a lame entry into the water but were hilarious to watch and an awesome aerial aerobatics display by Glen Dell in the Red Bull-branded Eqstra.
Low points included not being able to go anywhere near a (female) bathroom or fast food stand without hitting a human traffic jam, lack of places to stand (it was so crowded everyone was just clogging around restaurants, until some of them started bringing out additional tables and chasing the crowds away), the insane heat and the gridlocked traffic – leaving before lunch took close to an hour, just to get past the stadium, heading back towards town was horrendous, I shudder to think what it was like as the day went on.
Heat and congestion aside it was a really entertaining day and a super cool event.
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redbull.co.za | More info and history about the event
