The height of entertainment
By Emily Lindblom
For the TODAY
The beach will be lively with locals and tourists alike this weekend as they gather to stare in awe at the colorful shapes flying high above them.
The 45th annual Rockaway Beach Kite and Art Festival is slated for Friday, Oct. 22 through 24, at the Rockaway Beach Wayside off South 1st Avenue.
Kite flyers of all ages and skill levels are encouraged to come out and fly their kites during the event. The festival is sponsored by the American Kitefliers Association, through which professional fliers travel to kite festivals around the world.
Dannielle DiStefano raised her kids in Rockaway Beach and would take them to the kite festival every year.
“Out of all the festivals this one is my favorite,” DiStefano said. “It puts a smile on everybody’s face, from elderly to kids. It makes me happy so that’s why I go; for the joy.”
Though DiStefano has been attending the festival for years, this is her first time as an event organizer as part of the Rockaway Beach Chamber of Commerce.
“For generations, people have been bringing their families here to Rockaway Beach to watch all the kites,” DiStefano said, adding some of the kites are enormous.
Some of the oversized kites are the size of vehicles, while others are small sports kites.
Kristine Hayes, event coordinator, said the different shapes and sizes of the kites allow for some to be in the air at all times if there’s any wind at all.
“We get multiple emails and phone calls asking us about the schedule, but it’s completely dependent upon the wind,” Hayes said. “If it’s below four knots, the big kites can’t get up but the small kites do well.”
Hayes is a second-generation chamber board member, as her mother was on the board and used to organize the festival when Hayes was a girl. Hayes has been bringing her own kids with her to the kite festival, too.
“This past year my daughter looked at the huge kites up in the sky and got a huge smile and saw another family looking from side of the road smiling, and she said, ‘now I get it.’” Hayes said. This year, Hayes’ two-year-old grandson will get to go to the kite festival for the first time.
Along with the kites, there will be food and vendors at the event. Pronto Pup will bring its bright yellow trailer to serve customers as it’s been doing at the kite festival for the past few decades.
“Our locals enjoy him,” Hayes said of the Pronto Pup owner. “Some of our other vendors feel like locals too because they come back time after time.”
The local Lions Club also plans to sell hot dogs at the wayside over the weekend. The club sells hot dogs there all summer and has raised about $20,000 for the community so far this year.
For almost three decades Richard Patten has owned an art business called Richard’s Gifts at the Rockaway Beach Wayside, so he’s witnessed many kite festivals over the years.
He said it’s always a fun event.
“You have young kids with kites and the beach is loaded with people sitting out there enjoying the (hopefully) good weather and food at the Wayside,” Patten said. “It’s fun to watch them all sitting out there like a gallery. They all look forward to the big kites.”
Since he can see the beach from his window, he goes upstairs to take photos of the kites, and takes a break from work to come down to the event for a moment. But the kite festival keeps him busy, as it brings many shoppers to the area and creates a last sales boost for his business before his season ends.
Kitefliers participating in the festival can compete to win awards for the nicest kite; the kite that drags on the ground the longest before flying; and other events. The festival also includes classes for children to learn how to fly small kites.
This year’s kite festival is dedicated to the memory of longtime chamber and community volunteer Ann Swain, who died on June 21.
Hayes said she encourages festival-goers to use the public parking available by City Hall to try to keep the area from getting too crowded.
“We’re also asking people to be respectful of wearing masks if vendors and other people are doing so,” Hayes said. “That’s why we did it in October instead of the summer because we didn’t want to overpack the community.”
Last year, during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, the event organizers didn’t even advertise that the festival was going to happen in order to avoid crowds.
“For the community it was a spontaneous thing and people still got to enjoy it,” Hayes said. “They woke up and saw our spectacular kites, and when people were driving along the highway they’d see them and stop.”
For more information about this year’s festival, go to rockawaybeach.net.