Be the gust of honor
Catch some flight entertainment at the Rockaway Beach Kite Festival
By Chelsea Yarnell
For the TODAY
Like the Banks children in Mary Poppins, it’s time to celebrate kites that soar to the highest heights.
The Rockaway Beach Kite Festival will celebrate its 48th year this Father’s Day weekend, Friday through Sunday, June 14 through 16. The festival is an annual tradition for Rockaway Beach, featuring amateur kite fliers, exhibitions, professional synchronized kite performances and a vendor fair.
The festival is hosted by the Rockaway Beach Chamber of Commerce and sponsored by the American Kitefliers Association, the largest organized group of kiters in the world.
Association members will perform with more than just your basic kite. Kite flying performances are choreographed and synchronized to music. Spectators can expect to see a variety of kites, ranging from small to the size of school buses. A night kite performance is also anticipated.
“AKA is an international entity,” said Kristine Hayes, head of Rockaway Beach Chamber of Commerce. “Sometimes they bring people from other countries to perform.”
This year’s performers include Alaskiters Kite Club President Kirk Stickley; Quad Squad Northwest; Team Flying Dragon; and the Sky Sisters. AKA members Bob and Donna Wendt will also be back as the festival’s announcers, a task they have conducted for more than 20 years.
“Our festivals have a feeling about them and it has to do with people that live here and the vendors that participate that makes it like no place in the world,” Hayes said. “The kite fliers that we have say they have a feeling about us, too. They have such huge compliments for the chamber and the community and how welcome and down-home they feel.”
Hayes said the “community feel” might also come from the fact that a small city grant, as well as donations, help lodge and feed the performers while in town for the festival.
The festival runs for three days, but a schedule of performances is all contingent on Mother Nature.
“We can’t control the weather,” Hayes said. “We have to look at wind speeds, the tide, everything the day of.”
While kite performances will be based on weather, festival vendors will be operating during set times: Friday from noon to 6 pm, Saturday from 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 2 pm.
Featured vendors will include Rockaway Renaissance Artists, Original Pronto Pup Food Truck, Shaky Grounds Cafe Escape Room, Forever Young Dyes, Brittany Bakes and Ronnie’s Chicago Style BBQ. Fry Bread will also be for sale and there will also be a face painting station.
Kite demonstrations and shows will be performed directly on the beach in front of the Rockaway Beach Wayside, while the vendor and artisan fair will be in the parking lot behind the Rockaway Beach Chamber of Commerce’s Red Caboose.
Free public parking is available on the street behind Rockaway Beach City Hall. Guests can also park in Garibaldi and ride the Oregon Coast Scenic Railroad to Rockaway Beach. Tickets and reservations are required for the train.
For more information or two view videos of festivals past, go to rockawaybeach.net/kite-festival.