The Smithsonian 44th annual Kite Festival - DC 3/27

[Hektore]

http://kitefestival.org/

This free, public event organized by The Smithsonian Associates and the National Air and Space Museum features kite displays, demonstrations and handmade kite competitions.

The Smithsonian 44th annual Kite Festival will showcase craft in flight, beauty in the air, and the art of making kites soar.

Festival Activities

Kites as Craft: A beautiful display of hand-crafted kites from all over the world.

Children’s Kitemaking: Children are invited to design and create their own kites
with materials provided by the Drachen Foundation and presented by the West Indian
American Kiters Association.

Traditional Japanese Craft: National Cherry Blossom calligraphers will teach children
to write their names in Japanese characters by inking them onto their very own kites.

Stingrays in Flight: Stingrays “fly” through the water with fins that look like wings. Join the National Aquarium to transform paper into a stingray kite-complete with tail-to fly around the National Mall

The festival features three kite flying competitions:

* Handmade Kite competition, for those who build their own kites; Contest Categories. Rules.
* Hot Tricks showdown; Rules
* Rokkaku Kite Challenge for teams; Rules.

Be it a diamond or delta, box-kite or rokkaku, honor the art of kite making with color, creativity, and, of course, craft. The possibilities are endless, so stretch your imagination, push the limits, have fun, and be crafty! Whatever you end up creating, please make sure that in order to enter into the competition all kites must fly according to AKA specifications.

This is the Saturday after next, on the mall. The Mrs. and I will be in attendance for the event. If anyone in the DC area is interested I'd be up for a lunch-time meet up on the mall. I don't know the area fantastically well, so feel free to suggest a time and place.

I'm only going to be there in through the end of the event, we're going to see a play in Philly that night, it starts at 8.

I'm going to try to make a kite myself to fly - but I only learned to sew this week so it may not be pretty. If I finish it I'll post a picture.