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Spectacular Kite Festivals!
Walk Past an Amazing Kite Cloud
What do I mean by kite cloud? Kite festivals often have a lot of kites packed into a region of sky. On a visit to a local event quite a few years ago now, this term just popped into my head.
Photo courtesy of Michael CoghlanWe parked some distance from the festival due to traffic. On getting out, there it was—a giant region of air filled with fluttering and floating wind-creations of all kinds. It looked cloud-like to me!
As we walked onto the jetty, we were up close to many of the kites and could spot every detail.
Other craft lazily meandered on the ends of a few hundred feet of line. They were too far up to see the seams in the fabric, the flexing of the spars, and other details.
This was just one international event of many kite festivals that occur around the world. In most cases, they are held once every year.
The organizers round up the cream of the local kiting community to show off their best creations and skills.
At the other end of the scale, the general public are usually invited to participate too. Of course, the kites are rather more modest on the whole! We had a few of our own MBK home-built kites with us.
Some International Kite Festivals
Here are a few links to information we've compiled on various international events:
The Adelaide International is
easily accessible for us, since we live in that Australian city. This
event is one of the largest kiting festivals in the southern hemisphere,
with some stiff competition over on the East Coast! The page behind the link also covers other smaller kiting events in Adelaide that we have attended.
The Long Beach International is a mega-event that spans a whole week each year in the USA and is probably the most extensive and impressive such festival in North America. Even some of the pros don't bother attending every single day—it's just too much!
The Bristol International is more formally known as The International Festival of Kites and Air Creations. Trust the British to come up with a long and faintly pompous title. However, this festival would appear to be worthy of an impressive name like that! The Bristol event also has a long history.
The Niagara International was (yes, was) uniquely situated, straddling the USA and Canada in North America, right next to the famous waterfall. There's some interesting kite-flying history associated with this location too!
Here are some more kite images plus a video from the Adelaide event from past years.
Adelaide festival 'kite cloud'Although I didn't take the photo featuring the killer whale, I can actually remember that exact perspective from when we were at the Adelaide festival! We have a very similar shot lurking somewhere among our backup CDs. However, I suspect this guy's camera was a lot better than ours.
Not all the action is actually in the air. These days, at a large event, you might come across one or more giant Sky Dancers giving everyone a chuckle!
One of the UK kite festivals kicks off when there is still the possibility of snow and ice on the ground!
Night kite flying was a huge feature of a Gujarat Day celebration in India. Check out the videos in there! Also in India, FLY360 used kite shows to promote voting.
A big festival of kites can also attract enthusiasts from many other countries. Various areas of expertise in kite design, construction, and flying are put on show. Overseas experts are usually there by invitation, with sponsorships paying their way.
A big festival of kites will attract the local media, which helps to keep the sport popular. A sky full of kites is a very visual experience, naturally! Hence if you ever go to an event like this, expect to see plenty of fancy cameras and maybe even some local TV crews. A few seconds of footage on the local news showing the sky shimmering and shaking with color tends to stick in people's minds.
Some big kites don't have spars. Parafoil kites, for example, are soft in construction and can be packed down to a remarkably small space.
Wind-Speed Handy Reference
Light Air
1-5 kph
1-3 mph
1-3 knts
Beaufort 1
Light breeze
6–11 kph
4–7 mph
4–6 knts
Beaufort 2
Gentle ...
12–19 kph
8–12 mph
7–10 knts
Beaufort 3
Moderate ...
20–28 kph
13–18 mph
11–16 knts
Beaufort 4
Fresh ...
29–38 kph
19–24 mph
17–21 knts
Beaufort 5
Strong ...
39–49 kph
25–31 mph
22–27 knts
Beaufort 6
High Wind
50-61 kph
32-38 mph
28-33 knts
Beaufort 7
Gale
62-74 kph
39-46 mph
34-40 knts
Beaufort 8
Some US Festivals
Do you enjoy kite flying in the USA? In that case, there are numerous kite festivals to choose from.
If you live in the state of Michigan, kites are flown in a number of local festivals, you'll be glad to know! Follow that link for some contact details for these.
Festivals of kites in the USA can be very large as in India and China. Here are some other high-profile events from the USA:
- Zilker Kite Festival
- Berkeley Kite Festival
- Great Lakes Kite Festival
- Newport Kite Festival
- Great Delaware Kite Festival
- DC Kite Festival
Here's a photo taken at the DC Festival. Don't you like the way those wind-art flags totally blend with the airborne kites!
Photo courtesy of Edoardo Costa
Kite Festival Information from around the World
Are you interested in reading up on kite festivals? Click below to read promotional information written by the event organizers themselves:
Color the Wind Kite Festival 2019
Name: Color the Wind Kite Festival
Date: February 16, 2019
Time: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM CST
Website: http://www.colorthewind.org
Event Description: …
Kites in the Park 2018
Sunday, May 20 at 10 AM - 3 PM
Spring Canyon Park
Fort Collins, CO
Grab your kite and come out to Spring Canyon Community Park for the 9th Annual …
Color the Wind Kite Festival 2018
At the Color The Wind Kite Festival you can come and enjoy the biggest Winter kite festival in the Midwest! You will see all kinds of colorful kites. Stunt …
Fly a Kite for Mental Health 2016
Fly a Kite for Mental Health is an event in Winnipeg, Manitoba at Kildonan Park May 7th, 2016 from 12:30 to 4:30. This is to build awareness for youth …
SaskPower Windscape Kite Festival 2016
June 25 and 26, 2016
With a great lineup of kite artists attending from across North America and beyond, this year's Windscape Kite Festival will offer …
Pune International Kite Festival 2015
Hi all Kite lovers,
This is the second year for the kite festival to be held in Pune, India. Pune is well known for its arts and cultural activities. …
Sonali Seth Kite Festival 2014
Great community gathering.
Music.
The 3rd annual event...
Bollywood dancing.
Food.
It's Free!
Great weather in Bismarck with a good …
Come Fly a Kite!
Galisteo New Mexico USA
1st Annual Kite Festival
Galisteo Rodeo ground parking
Saturday April 26th 2014 10 A.M.
Family/kid friendly
Free …
Adelaide International Kite Festival 2013
The Adelaide Kite festival is almost upon us.
Guests from India, new Zealand and interstate will be arriving at end of this week.
875 lollies have …
KiteFest 2013
•What is the location? Mount Vernon, Texas at the Franklin County Airport located on County Road NW 1030.
•What are the dates of the festival? March …
Adelaide Kite Festival 2012
Just to let all readers of this magnificent site know that the 15th Adelaide Kite Festival will be held Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th of April 2012 - the …
Ocean Beach Kite Festival 2012
Will be happening on Saturday March 3 2012 Beginning at 0900. 64th annual event. Command Central is the Ocean Beach Recreation Center.
Where: Ocean …
Belgaum International Kite Festival 2011
An International Kite Festival will be organised for the first time in Belgaum (Karnataka, India)on 16th and 17th January 2011. Various teams across the …
Great Kite´s Santiago Sacatepequez
PARA LOS AMANTES DEL ARTE
Visita este 1 de Noviembre la hermosa poblacion de Santiago Sacatepequez, departamento de GUATEMALA y admira el arte de papel …
SaskPower Windscape Kite Festival 2010
The 2010 SaskPower Windscape Kite Festival takes flight in Swift Current, Saskatchewan on June 19 and 20. This world-class event attracts kite flyers, …
Ahmedabad International Kite Festival 2010
An International Kite Festival is held at Ahmedabad on January 14 every year, to coincide with the festival of Uttarayan or Makar Sankranti. Makar Sankranti …
Sunrise Kite Flyers
Wowww - first of all, all kites had to be flying BEFORE sunrise. This was all too funny - half of the kite flyers were hung-over or still drunk. Some of …
Ahmedabad International Kite Festival
The International Kite festival of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India is held every here from 11th January to 14th January from 1989 onwards. For the last 20 years, …
Ruse Kite Festival
I am from the city of Ruse, Bulgaria, and I recently discovered that I LOVE kites - making them, flying them - you name it! So I found the MBK site, and …
Idaho Kite Festival
The Idaho Kite Festival's first train took to the sky in 2008.
I was so struck by the sight of 100-kite stacks floating over WSIKF that I came home …
Idaho Kite Festival
The photo was taken during the First Idaho State Kite Festival 2007.
Guest kite instructor Tom Tinney told us 6 feet of line would give us bragging …
