Been To A Kite Festival?

Walk Into The Kite Cloud And Be Amazed!

What do I mean by Kite Cloud? On a recent visit to a local kite festival, this term just popped into my head. We 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. Others lazily meandered on the ends of a few hundred feet of line. Too far up to see the seams in the fabric, the flexing of the spars and other details.

This was just one International festival of many 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.

Down there on the right, you can see what we saw as we first walked towards the Adelaide festival...

A big kites festival 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 sponsorship paying their way.

Calling Kite Festival Organizers!

Many people interested in kite festivals visit this page. So, what would you like them to know about your event? What will be particularly unique or spectacular this year?

Write as much as you like, it costs nothing. Start with the specifics of location and dates of course. A photo of last year's event will help draw people's interest too.

Interested in reading up on kite festivals? Click below to read promotional information written by the event organizers themselves ...

Thinking Of Contributing?
Festival Organizers Please Read...

Firstly, you might be curious about just how visible this site is. After all, you don't want to waste your time if only 2 people a week get to see your promotion! Feel free to contact me for accurate traffic figures, or other stats. I can assure you, they are impressive.

A couple of tips for best results with your photo...

Pictures of kites straight from your camera can be uploaded successfully. However, transferring these large raw digital images can take many minutes over a slow Internet connection. Re-sizing a jpg or gif image to around 100Kb or so will still result in a high-quality image on a computer screen. If you haven't done this before, try using Piknik, a free photo-editing service that runs in your browser.

For maximum impact on my site, a photo that's taller than it is wide works best. This way, when my site re-sizes the photo to fit the page, it will appear as large as possible.

Some International Festivals

One day we might even travel overseas just to cover a big festival! For now, here's a few links to information we've compiled on various international events...

The Long Beach International. This mega-event spans a whole week each year in the U.S., and is probably the most extensive and impressive such festival in North America. Even some of the pro's don't bother attending every single day - it's just too much!

The Bristol International. 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 is uniquely situated, straddling the U.S. and Canada in North America, right next to the famous waterfall. There's some interesting kite flying history associated with this location too!

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!

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!

For travellers to Asia, a Chinese festival of kites is not to be missed!

Some U.S. Festivals

Do you enjoy kite flying in the U.S.? In that case, there are numerous great beach kite festivals to choose from. In fact, that link to tips-for-the-beach.com will take you to a goldmine of info if you have ever wondered what to do down at the beach, kites or otherwise!

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 U.S. can be very large, as in India and China. Here are some other high-profile events from the U.S. ...

• Great Lakes Kite Festival
• Zilker Kite Festival
• Newport Kite Festival
• Great Delaware Kite Festival
• DC Kite Festival

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Last updated: 20 May 2010