UPDATE: While Friday evening festivities (pet parade, etc.) will go on, the Saturday Fantastic Fly-in event of paraglider viewing has been cancelled due to weather.
Fantastic Fly-In is fashioned after the 40-year-old Coupe Icare, the free flight festival that marks the end of the European summer flying season held each year in the alpine village of St Hilaire du Touvet in France, where costumed paragliders and spectators hold demonstrations that are spectacular to watch.
The Fantastic Fly-In Festival will be packed with emotion, audacity, creativity, fantasy, thrills and laughter, and an unflinching passion for flying.
Friday, August 26, 6-9 pm – Front Street Downtown Issaquah Pet Parade
The Fantastic Fly-In weekend will kick off Friday night in downtown Issaquah at the Historic Shell Station with art, live music, a paragliding film viewing, and festivities. Dress up your pets and join us at 7 pm at the Historic Shell Station as we parade through downtown to Pedestrian Park with stilt walkers and zany costumes of all sorts followed by entertainment.
Saturday, August 27, 4–7 pm (prime flying time is 5 pm)
Spectators will gather at the Tiger Mountain Landing Zone near the Chirico Trailhead (Poo Poo Point) along Issaquah Hobart Road to witness the spectacle of costumed paragliders taking to the skies. Food trucks will be on site along with a beer garden.
Fliers will launch from Tiger Mountain at Poo Poo Point, one of the premier paragliding sites in the United States and is close to Issaquah. The Chirico Trail leads hikers up to the launch point and a shuttle takes paragliders up to the grassy slope launch where they fly and land at the landing zone next to the Hobart road.
Parking:
The parking lot at the landing zone will be closed for spectator viewing. Parking will be available at the Issaquah Community Center at 301 Rainier Blvd South in downtown Issaquah or at Issaquah Christian Church 10328 Issaquah-Hobart Rd SE a half mile north of the Paragliding Landing Zone.
A bus will bring people at no charge to and from both these parking areas and the Paragliding Landing Zone area between 3:00-8:00 p.m.
Inclement Weather:
Paragliding is subject to the weather. If it rains or the weather is not favorable, this event will be cancelled and not rescheduled for this year. We will announce three days prior to the event if cancelled.
