Fantastic Fly-In — a festival featuring flying paraglider floats and costumed pilots — takes wing Aug. 26-27, 2016.
Aug. 26, 6-9 p.m.
Fantastic Fly-In weekend will kick off at the Hailstone Feed Store, 232 Front St. N., with art, live music, a paragliding film and festivities.
Dress up your animals and join the fun at 7 p.m., when a parade departs from the feed store, through downtown to Pedestrian Park with stilt walkers and zany costumes of all sorts. Live entertainment at Pedestrian Park will follow the parade.
Aug. 27, 4-7 p.m. (prime flying time is 5 p.m.)
Spectators will gather at the Tiger Mountain Landing Zone near the Chirico Trailhead (Poo Poo Point) along Issaquah-Hobart Road Southeast to witness the spectacle of costumed paragliders taking to the skies. The landing zone will feature food trucks and a beer garden.
Flyers will launch from Tiger Mountain at Poo Poo Point. Chirico Trail leads hikers up to the launch point. A shuttle takes paragliders up to the launch area.
The parking lot at the landing zone will be closed to allow for spectator viewing. Parking is available at the Issaquah Community Center, 301 Rainier Blvd. S., or Issaquah Christian Church, 10328 Issaquah-Hobart Road S.E., a half-mile north of the landing zone.
From 3-8 p.m., a free trolley will take festivalgoers to and from both parking areas and the landing zone.
Paragliding is subject to the weather. In the event of inclement weather, Fantastic Fly-In will be cancelled and not rescheduled for this year.
During the first Fantastic Fly-In in September 2015, dozens of costumed paragliders took flight over Issaquah while hundreds of spectators watched from the landing zone below.
Fantastic Fly-In — fashioned after the 40-year-old Coupe Icare, a French flight festival — was the first festival of this magnitude in the United States.
Fantastic Fly-In is sponsored by artEAST, City of Issaquah, Downtown Issaquah Association, Greater Issaquah Chamber of Commerce, King County Parks, Northwest Paragliding and Seattle Paragliding.