South Shore skies erupted in a riot of colour yesterday as thousands flocked to Horseshoe Bay for the annual Good Friday kite-flying festivities.

Kites of all shapes and sizes battled for space among the clouds as Bermudians, ex-pats and tourists soaked up the sun and lapped up a glorious afternoon of live entertainment.

Traditional homemade creations ? carefully constructed using tissue paper, glue, string and wood ? fluttered in the breeze alongside shop-bought designs featuring dragons, pirates, space shuttles, cartoon characters and tropical fish.

Among the high-flying winners in the best kite contest was Southampton resident Steven Harvey.

The pest control worker is used to zapping rodents and bugs for a living. But over the last week he spent nearly 50 hours making a seven-foot high masterpiece, using 300 yards of string and 560 patches of tissue paper.

?This is the third time I?ve won the largest kite contest,? said Steven, 34, who?s been mastering the art of kite construction since childhood.

Sadly, the winds at Horseshoe Bay were not strong enough to prevent Steven?s handiwork staying grounded.

One soaraway success that did take flight, however, was the creation of South Carolina tourists Charles and Sandra Lavender.

The couple used pages of for their headline-grabbing design, assembled in 30 minutes during kite lessons classes at Ariel Sands.

Charles, 76, told how he rubbed shoulders with film star Michael Douglas as he tested his model on Thursday at the resort beach.

?I told him he needed to move over so we did not get our kites tangled,? said Charles, who yesterday scooped first place in the best visitor category.

?He was flying a kite with his son, but I didn?t recognise him. I had no idea who he was until we met him later. He was very nice.?

Charles and Sandra, first-time visitors to Bermuda, said the Good Friday celebrations at Horseshoe were ?wonderful?.

He added: ?We knew nothing about it until we flew out here.

?I love it.?

Another champ was children?s winner Finn Hutton. The six-year-old, from Somerset Primary School, gave his kite a topical Easter theme ? covering it in paper eggs, chicks and rabbits.

He said he was upset because the rabbits had no tails? so his mum added some cotton wool balls.

Shanaka Gunasinghe, 14, from Spice Valley Middle School, also wowed the crowd with his peacock design, before walking away with the youth category top prize.

But many big kite owners were left bemoaning the lack of wind whipping in off the Atlantic.

Canadian Phillip Jones, a Good Friday flying veteran, struggled bravely to keep his large circular kite airborne. ?There?s not enough wind,? he said.

?The people who got the $5 grocery store kites are the winners today.?

Calm conditions left Warwick resident John Cumberbatch unsure whether it was gusty enough for his kite, hand-crafted by son, Jonathon, to get off the ground.

But there was no doubting how happy he was to have it in his hands.

?It?s a work of art,? he beamed, proudly clutching the eye-catching red, orange and brown creation.

Crowds who hit the beach in huge numbers yesterday also enjoyed live entertainment that featured singers, prayers, poetry readings, dancers, fashion shows, limbo dancing and a mighty East End verses West End tug of war.

The event was sponsored by the United Bermuda Party. Its leader, Wayne Furbert, hailed the day a great success.

?Word of mouth is making it more and more popular,? he said. ?It?s great that there are so many people here. There?s a fantastic atmosphere.?