International Kite Festival
05/23/2008
Entertainment
The horizon of Wildwood, NJ, will overflow with
an amazing array of colorful flying creations of all shapes and sizes
Memorial Day weekend, as the 23rd Annual Wildwoods International Kite
Festival and East Coast Stunt Kite Championships take to the skies.
The largest kite festival in North America, every kind of kite imaginable
will be at the event, from traditional kites to enormous inflatable
creatures flown by professional kite flyers, members of local and
out-of-state kite clubs and interested spectators who register with the
event.
The four-day festival will be held Friday, May 23, through Monday, May 26,
on the Rio Grande Avenue beach adjacent to the Wildwoods Convention Center
and inside the center's 75,000 square-foot exhibition hall, where free kite
building and indoor kite flying workshops will be held, along with an
exhibition of today's most popular kites and kite flying equipment and
accessories.
"Wildwood's huge beaches make this festival one of the biggest and best in
the world, and when you add in sea breezes and sunshine it's hard to imagine
finding a better place anywhere to fly a kite or a festival that is more fun
than this one," said Beatrix Pelton, proprietor of Sky Festival Productions,
which produces the festival.
This year's competition is highlighted by several American Kitefliers
Association award winners and some of the nation's best sport kite pilots
and kite makers, including Mike Agner, of Wilmington, NC, Ron Gibian, of
Visalia, CA, Jose Sainz, of San Diego, CA, David Gomberg, of Neotsu, OR, Al
Sparling, of Naperville, IL, Scott Skinner, of Monument, CO, and Phil
McConnachie, of Adelaide, Australia. The event also will have kite clubs
participating from across New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Virginia
and Washington, among others.
Each day of the festival is filled with activities. Friday offers a `kids
school kite program' in the convention center, beginning at 10:00 a.m., a
kite flying show on the beach at Noon and a glowing, glittering, illuminated
night kite fly at 9:00 p.m.
On Saturday the festival opens at 9:00 a.m. with the kite exhibition and
free kite making workshops in the convention center, kite flying lessons on
the beach and special iQuad - nine person, quad-line kite ballet
performances. It also is the first day of the East Coast Stunt Kite
Championships (ECSKC) which begins on the beach at 9:30 a.m. and continues
throughout the day with a series of Masters, Experienced and Novice
competitions in Precision (stunt kite) and Ballet (choreographed to music)
kite flying. There also will be a fighter kite demonstration on the beach
at 10:00 a.m. and candy-laden kites will shower the spectators when a kite
candy drop takes place at 11:00 a.m.
In the afternoon Saturday, indoor kite flying lessons will be offered in the
convention center and another candy drop will take place on the beach at
1:00 p.m. At 2:30 p.m., the `Running of the Bols' is held on the beach - a
100 foot race with participants harnessed to a huge parachute style kite to
create wind resistance as they run, followed by an indoor kite flying show
at 3:15 p.m. Award ceremonies for the day's ECSKC competitions will be held
at 3:30 and the `Great Kite Auction,' featuring a variety of kites and
collectibles, takes place in the convention center at 7:00 p.m.
Sunday again features the kite exhibition, kite making workshops, kite
flying lessons and the iQuad performances beginning at 9:00 a.m. The series
of ECSKC pairs and team competitions in precision and ballet kite flying
begins at 9:30, followed at 11:00 by the fighter kite demonstration and a
mega-iQuad event at 11:30. The first candy drop of the day will be at Noon,
and then the exciting `Japanese Rokkaku Challenges' at 12:30 - competitions
between 4-foot-diameter, six-sided battle kites. Indoor kite flying lessons
are offered at 1:00, as well as another candy drop and the Running of the
Bols at 2:00, and an indoor kite ballet show at 2:30.
Monday's activities are highlighted by a world indoor kite competition at
the convention center at 9:00 a.m., followed by a `Tricks Party' - a new
kind of sport kite competition requiring mandatory tricks in each routine -
on the beach at 11:00.
Participant registration forms and program schedules of the 23rd Annual
Wildwoods International Kite Festival and East Coast Stunt Kite
Championships will be available at the Wildwood Convention Center throughout
Memorial Day Weekend. For additional information, e-mail Sky Festivals
Productions at info@skyfestivals.com or contact the Wildwoods Tourism
Authority toll-free at 1-800-WW-BY-SEA (1-800-992-9732) or on the web at
www.WildwoodsNJ.com.