Red Bull Flugtag 2025 is coming back to Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront, where 40 teams will launch wild, homemade flying machines off a 25-foot platform into the ocean. It’s a fun and crazy contest where creativity, humor, and daring take flight more than perfect aerodynamics. People dress up, build crazy crafts, and put on funny shows before their flights, all aiming to impress with style and boldness. The event promises a joyful mix of thrills, laughs, and spectacular splashes, bringing the city together for a day full of imagination and fun.
Red Bull Flugtag 2025 in Cape Town is a creative flying competition where 40 teams launch homemade, human-powered flying machines off a 25-foot platform at the V&A Waterfront. The event celebrates innovation, humor, and daring performances, combining flight distance, design originality, and entertainment.
On a sunlit Sunday in early November 2025, the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town will set the stage for a spectacle unlike any other. After more than a decade away, Red Bull Flugtag makes its return, inviting dreamers, tinkerers, and thrill-seekers back to the city’s iconic harbour. This one-of-a-kind event, where human ingenuity meets comic folly, brings together forty teams who will hurl their handmade flying contraptions off a platform 25 feet above the chilly Atlantic, all in pursuit of a few fleeting seconds of airborne glory.
Red Bull Flugtag—German for “flight day”—has always thrived at the crossroads of vision and mischief. The event taps into humanity’s ancient fascination with flight, channeling the spirit of inventors who dared to defy gravity, often with more hope than success. Yet the heart of Flugtag beats with the same energy that fuels street carnivals and avant-garde art. Participants don costumes, craft outlandish machines, and embrace the possibility of spectacular failure alongside the thrill of a well-executed glide.
Veteran South African aerobatic pilot Patrick Davidson, a Red Bull athlete and authority on aerial daring, sums up the event best: “It’s where flying meets flair and cheerful bedlam.” He sees in Flugtag a familiar hunger for the impossible—only here, the rules bend to favour style, spectacle, and a good sense of humour, rather than strict aerodynamics. The competition rewards not just distance, but the boldness and creativity that go into every launch and every splash.
Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront has played host to spectacles for generations, but Flugtag holds a distinct place in the city’s collective memory. When the event last touched down in 2012, it drew an astonishing 220,000 spectators. That year, Team Bulls Eye captured the crowd’s imagination with a leap of 17.09 meters, defying unpredictable winds and the unpredictable nature of their craft. Their victory set a benchmark for South African teams and remains a source of local pride.
Red Bull Flugtag has, since its 1992 debut, crisscrossed the globe and enchanted audiences in over fifty countries, amassing more than nine million fans along the way. Each city adds its own twist to the festivities, but the formula of courage, comedy, and competition remains universal. The world record, set in 2013 by a team known as The Chicken Whisperers in Long Beach, California, stretches to a remarkable 78.6 meters—proof that, once in a while, imagination and engineering can outpace gravity itself.
Iconic moments from other cities add to Flugtag’s lore: Portland’s Greased Lightning team attempted a rocket-powered launch, blurring the line between flight and fireworks, while cities like Vienna and Sydney have seen everything from flying toilets to enormous insects attempt to conquer the skies. These shared stories form part of a growing tradition, inspiring newcomers to chase glory with equal parts ambition and humour.
Every Flugtag entry is a blend of engineering challenge and creative theatre. Teams must build their flying machines from scratch, relying only on human muscle for propulsion and keeping within strict weight and material guidelines. This ensures a wild variety of shapes and themes, as each group draws on everything from science fiction to local folklore for inspiration. Past events have seen everything from airborne dragons and cartoon characters to pizza slices and pirate ships teeter on the edge of flight.
Success at Flugtag demands more than just technical know-how. Teams also prepare elaborate pre-flight performances—short skits or dances that set the stage for their attempted flight. These theatrical moments, often filled with slapstick humour or cheeky cultural references, have become a cornerstone of the event’s appeal. The judging panel rewards teams based on three key categories: flight distance, originality of design, and creativity of the performance. In true Flugtag fashion, the most unforgettable entrants sometimes fly the shortest distances, but win the crowd and judges with their panache and wild ideas.
The process of bringing a Flugtag machine to life often begins months before the event. Teams gather in garages, workshops, or even backyards to sketch blueprints, test materials, and rehearse their routines. The application window for 2025 closes on July 31st, and excitement grows as new teams announce their intentions to compete. Whether powered by competitive spirit or the simple joy of participating in a once-in-a-lifetime spectacle, every participant contributes to the carnival atmosphere that defines Flugtag.
Behind every flying machine stands a cast of characters as colourful as their creations. Engineers, artists, comedians, and everyday enthusiasts join forces for months of secret planning and friendly rivalry. Some teams bring meticulous design and months of preparation, while others arrive with a spirit of improvisation and an appetite for fun. The shared experience of building, performing, and sometimes crashing together forges lasting friendships and legendary stories.
Presiding over the chaos is a panel of carefully chosen judges, featuring local celebrities, aviation experts, and creative luminaries from the Cape Town scene. Their challenge lies in balancing technical merit with a healthy respect for the unconventional. Prizes for the top teams go beyond trophies—they include exclusive Red Bull experiences, VIP access to behind-the-scenes events, and the chance to meet renowned athletes. The judges themselves often become part of the entertainment, their reactions and banter adding another layer to the day’s festivities.
Flugtag transforms the V&A Waterfront into a vibrant festival ground. Families, friends, and curious visitors flock to the harbour, drawn by the prospect of laughter, ingenuity, and the chance to witness history in the making. Loudspeakers pulse with energetic music, while vendors serve snacks and sell memorabilia. Children gaze wide-eyed at the bizarre flying machines; parents share stories from previous events; and the city’s landmarks provide a dramatic backdrop that elevates the entire celebration.
At its core, Flugtag celebrates the value of daring greatly—even when success seems unlikely. In an age that prizes efficiency and careful planning, the event offers a joyful reminder of the rewards found in experimentation and risk. Flugtag’s participants willingly face the prospect of sinking over soaring, but win admiration for their courage, inventiveness, and willingness to find joy in the unexpected.
This playful defiance of convention echoes the spirit of artistic movements that have long prized creativity for its own sake. The Surrealists, Dadaists, and Futurists championed fantasy, humour, and the breaking of boundaries—values that find new expression every time a team takes the plunge at Flugtag. The event reminds everyone involved that the pursuit of the impossible, even on homemade wings, can bring people together in laughter and wonder.
For Cape Town, Flugtag 2025 offers more than a day’s entertainment. It renews the city’s tradition of spectacular gatherings and shared adventure, inviting new stories and new legends. Social media buzzes with speculation about team lineups and the identities of this year’s judges. Red Bull South Africa (@RedBullZA) drops hints and teasers, fueling the excitement as the countdown begins.
As anticipation builds for Flugtag’s return, Cape Town readies itself to welcome a wave of creativity, courage, and community spirit. Teams fine-tune their designs, locals speculate about potential record-breaking flights, and visitors prepare for a day of laughter and inspiration. Whether you’re a first-time attendee, a returning fan, or a hopeful participant, the event promises something for everyone: drama, invention, and a healthy dose of irreverent fun.
Red Bull Flugtag endures because it speaks to a universal dream—the desire to rise above the ordinary and, if only for a moment, touch the sky. For those who take the leap, and for the thousands who cheer them on, the event is a celebration of possibility, unity, and the exhilarating power of human imagination. Cape Town’s 2025 edition looks set to write a new chapter in this global story, inviting all to join in a day of flight, folly, and unforgettable memories above the waves.
Red Bull Flugtag 2025 is a creative and entertaining flying competition held at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. Forty teams will launch homemade, human-powered flying machines off a 25-foot platform into the ocean. The event celebrates creativity, humor, and daring performances more than aerodynamic perfection. Teams compete by combining flight distance, the originality of their craft, and the flair of their pre-flight shows.
The event will be held on a sunny Sunday in early November 2025 at the iconic V&A Waterfront in Cape Town. This waterfront location offers a dramatic backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean and city skyline, turning the competition into a vibrant festival filled with laughter, imagination, and spectacular splashes.
Teams build their flying machines from scratch using only human power, adhering to strict weight and material guidelines to ensure safety and fairness. Creativity is key: past entries have included dragons, pirate ships, pizza slices, and cartoon characters. Judging is based on three categories: flight distance, originality of design, and creativity of the pre-flight performance. Sometimes, the most memorable teams are those who fly the shortest distances but win the crowd with humor and style.
Participants range from engineers, artists, and comedians to everyday enthusiasts who share a passion for creativity and fun. Teams spend months designing, building, and rehearsing their routines, fostering friendships and a lively spirit of camaraderie and competition. The event attracts a diverse mix of personalities, all united by a love for daring feats and joyful spectacle.
Spectators can look forward to a lively, carnival-like atmosphere with energetic music, food vendors, and family-friendly entertainment. The event is not only about the flights but also the colorful costumes, humorous skits, and inventive crafts on display. Thousands of attendees gather to cheer, laugh, and celebrate human imagination and boldness in a day full of thrills and unforgettable moments.
Red Bull Flugtag has been captivating audiences worldwide since 1992, with over nine million fans in more than 50 countries. Cape Town last hosted the event in 2012, drawing 220,000 spectators. The world record for flight distance is 78.6 meters, set in 2013 in California. The event blends local culture and global spectacle, honoring a tradition of humor, creativity, and the joy of attempting the impossible—even if it means a splashy landing.
South Africa is making big changes to keep a close eye on its top leaders!…
Cape Town is bursting with sports action from December 5th to 7th, 2025! You can…
South African cheesemakers dazzled at the 2025 World Cheese Awards in Switzerland! They won many…
Mozambique and South Africa just held their 4th big meeting, the BiNational Commission, in Maputo.…
South Africa and Mozambique are like old friends, working together to make things better. They…
South Africa's water system is a mess! Almost half of its drinking water isn't safe,…