SPI Kite Fest

Apparently, February has been the month that folks on South Padre Island would gather together on a weekend to have a fun gathering of kite enthusiasts. The event kept getting bigger until in 2010, Kite Trade Association International recognized it as the Kite Festival of the year!

We headed out to the festival grounds just North of the SPI Convention Center. We don’t know how many people were there, but it certainly numbered in the thousands. Kites of all imaginable shapes dotted the sky, some small and others huge. The interesting shapes and colors reminded us a great deal of the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.

We enjoyed walking around the grounds to get a close look at the interesting shapes. All of them flew, although some of them

were more controllable than others. The largest ones were mainly for show and catching your eye. The smaller ones were quite maneuverable, with their “pilots” showing off for all the crowd.

They had some a competition where folks with maneuverable kites competed in a short-timed event accompanied by music. We took in several of the announced flies, and were impressed both at how maneuverable the kites were, and how well the “pilots” were able to choreograph their flies along with the music playing on the loud speaker.

We had a great time and were glad we took it I

n. Since we were right next door to the Birding Center we headed over and did the board walk. This Coopers Hawk was quite interested in all the colorful things up in the sky. We assume he considered them possible lunch.

Talk to you soon!