Monday, January 10, 2011

10th Annual Winter Kite Festival

This past Saturday, January 8th, 2011, the Minnesota Kite Society and the Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board held the 10th Annual Winter Kite Festival on Lake Harriet in Minneapolis. It was a perfect day for it too. The weather cooperated nicely with clear blue skies and a light breeze.

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival

I wanted to ride on the lake, but Minneapolis frowns on that sort of thing, so I ended up riding here instead.

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival

The DNR ran an ice fishing demo in a house similar to this one:

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival

The event ran from noon until 4pm. We arrived around 1pm and the big kites really started to go up at about 2pm. We walked across the lake. It was a really nice day out.

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 

We were bundled up, and didn’t feel the cold. Motorcycle pants make great snow pants. Wind proof and insulated! This guy didn’t seem cold either.

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 

There were all sorts of kites flying.

Green ones that look like dragons

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival

Birds:

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 

huge, massive kites

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 

This one was our favorite. Look how small the people are in the lower right

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 

My wife liked this squid kite a lot too. It was also very large.

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 

This was another of my favorites.

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 

It was very high up, and looked tiny. It was also a big one.

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 

Hundreds of people showed up

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival

At one point I counted nearly thirty kites in the sky at once. It was an incredible sight.

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival 10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival

The DJ in his festive hat.

10th Annual Lake Harriet Winter Kite Festival

Full flickr album

I made a short YouTube Video. I think it is one of my best so far. Enjoy!

6 comments:

  1. Boy, it looks really bright and sunny. How do you stand it?

    That looks like a great event. It almost feels like spring is here already.

    Richard

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  2. How cool that kite flying is so alive and well there!

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  3. RichardM: A tinted shield helps ;)

    Keith: It was a cool one indeed.

    irondad: yea, who knew? I'd never heard of the event until a couple days before while randomly browsing around. It made for a fun afternoon.

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  4. Holiday season has just ended. And now Festival is a reason for us to have a get together again. Family and friends, especially the kids will love the Winter Kite Festival. I just love the feeling of being a kid at heart always.

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  5. Sharon: There appeared to be quite a few happy kids there. Many were roasting marshmallows on the camp fire while watching the kites. (I didn't get a pic of them).

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