Mark your calendars for April 24, 25 and 26th to attend the 3rd Annual Ruidoso Kite Festival at White Mountain Sports Complex in Ruidoso New Mexico! Festivities begin Friday at 1pm till 5pm. Saturday begins at 9 am and close at 5 pm. Sunday will be 11am until 4 pm with an early worship service to kick things off starting at 10:30.
You might be wondering….WHAT IS A KITE FESTIVAL???
View Photos from 2008 Kite Festival in Ruidoso click here
Bruce DeFoor, one of the Kite Festival organizers and Chairman of the Art Department at ENMU Ruidoso, sees it as “A chance for people to discover HUGE hand made kites of unique designs flown by professional kite fliers from surrounding states. It’s also a event that you can actually be a participant in. You can sit back and just take it all in, or you can grab a kite and fly with 100’s of others and actually learn to love the wind for a change!” Believe it or not, kite flying is an international hobby in which thousands of people participate. Visit the American Kite Fliers Association website at http://www.aka.kite.org/ for more information about the huge variety of modern kites.
DeFoor was instrumental in launching the 1st Annual Ruidoso Kite Festival in 2007, where no less than 300 kites were made during the weekend (with assistance from volunteers) and flown by local children. Jeri and Joan, the sisters at WeCree8, teamed with Bruce that 1st year and somehow pulled off a successful event in a little less than a month. The event takes far more planning now though, and new board members Rifle Salas and Dawnn Moore are helping to make it more successful than ever.
During the 2008 festival, over 800 kites were made and this year, the volunteer organization is expected to assist over 1,200 children in building and flying their own handmade kites! It is believed that over 4,500 hundred spectators/participants are expected this year over the 3 day span. Local businesses and lodgers have reported increased sales directly related to the Kite Festival and are happily waiting to greet kiters this year as well. April is considered a slower activity month for the Village, so the Kitefest makes a great fit. Ironically, April is National Kite Flying Month as well.
There is no entry fee to the festival, and all are invited to come and spend a day….or the entire weekend, watching great kites like our giant mascot of the event, 88 ft tall “Ollie the Octopus” and colorful “Spike the Blow Fish”, and many more float over the White Mountain Sports Complex. The only cost associated with the festival is $2 donation per kite, for children who want to make and fly their own kite. Attendees are welcome to bring their own kites too. This is a participatory, not just a spectator event! There will be prizes given for different catagories, such as for the highest kite flown and farthest distance traveled to the show. There will also be high quality, commercially made rip stop nylon kites available for sale for those that don’t bring one.
This year will feature an aerial “dogfight” between Snoopy and the Red Baron in their huge kite-airplanes! Come and cheer for Snoopy! Another new event this year will be CANDY DROPS throughout the weekend, where bags of candy will be hauled up in the air by a huge kite, and dropped to the children waiting below. A Kite Hospital will be waiting for kids with kites in distress again this year. Due to popular request, this year there will be professional kite fliers who will be teaching people how to fly a variety of different kites. Live bands and an announcer will keep things moving along nicely. There will also be Kite Festival hats, pins, and t-shirts available for sale, with proceeds going to the Kite Festival fund for next year’s event.
This event is all about FAMILY. It is not unusual to see 3 or 4 generations of a family out flying kites and enjoying a beautiful spring day together. There will also be more food vendors than last year, so you won’t have to worry about leaving for lunch.
People are coming from out of town for this event too, like the bus that is bringing up families from Holloman Air Force Base. Word of this event continues to spread throughout the west, as far away as California. Last year at least 2 families reported made the long trip from California by car, just to take in the sights and be a part of all the colorful kites. The event has now been sanctioned by the Ruidoso Village Council, Chamber of Commerce and Visitor Center.
Donations and volunteers are still very much needed for the event, and it will be the most fun you will ever have as a volunteer. Please contact Dawnn Moore, ENMU Event Planner at 257-2120 if you would like to volunteer or donate. Even if you are not able to attend, volunteer or donate, you can help us spread the news of this incredible event by forwarding this website to your friends and family http://www.ruidosokitefestival.com/ ..
See you there, and happy kite flying!
