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I was surprised to have solved this relatively quickly, as it seemed a bit forbidding at first, and I’m not terribly familiar with Kite’s ways. Theme became clear pretty quickly though and helped.
FOI 1d. LOI 22d, which was pretty obvious but took me too long to parse. 19d can only be one thing if I’ve got the crossers right but I’m not happy with the clue or the word.
COD? I’ll go for 18d.
Thanks to Kite - I enjoyed this on the whole.

Thanks to Kite. Relatively easy puzzle with a fairly obvious anniversary theme, though thematic clues [omitted to avoid spoilers] were well-disguised and the theme only gradually became clear.

I didn’t catch on to the theme until late, but it did help me quickly fill in the last few I had.

I got a strong suspicion of the theme with the third solution I entered, wondering "why wasn't the definition the obvious one?". 😕 But it took a couple more similar solutions to confirm the suspicion.

I stalled out on three clues on the right side of the puzzle and absolutely needed the theme (one of the three was a thematic) to finish. Kudos to Kite for disguising the thematic clues. Technically the puzzle should be solvable without seeing the theme.

I am stuck on 26a. I have s_b_r_d
The words I can think of that fit these letters do not seem to fit the clue. Are my letters right? Any hints?

21a, not 26

smudgekent, those crossers seem to pertain to 21a, save the 'b' which is incorrect. 26a is a five-letter word.
Perhaps you have 18d wrong? Hint/spoiler: the solution to 18d also appeared in yesterday's Guardian puzzle by Picaroon.

Thank you Geeker.
I have corrected my spelling of 18d, which made 21a fall into place..

Spotted the theme but hadn’t appreciated why it might be relevant now (thanks, Geeker).
Kite said previously that most of his/her puzzles have a theme so worth remembering.
Collins confirms that usage for “kip”, which wasn’t familiar to me and I couldn’t find it in Chambers.

Thanks to Kite.