Grand Island Kite Festival hosted over the weekend

GRAND ISLAND — After two days and two nights of high flying fun, the Grand Island Kite Festival came to an end Sunday even though the wind didn’t.

The free annual event, held by the Friends of the Grand Island Parks department, saw a rare event, constant winds for the whole event,

“This has been a perfect kite weekend,” said Vikki Deuel with the organization.

“We’ve had spotty wind before, we’ve had no wind before, and we’ve even had too strong of wind before, but this weekend was amazing,” she said.

Things kicked off with a night flight in the dark at Starr Elementary Friday night, then out to the Veterans Sports Complex Saturday before doing an additional night flight Saturday night. Things continued on Sunday back at the Veterans Sports Complex.

As usual professional kite fliers came from not only over Nebraska, but all over the country to fly giant kites and educate people about the sport.

Kite pros from North Dakota, Minnesota, Illinois, Iowa, and Colorado flew all kinds of kites high above the Veterans Sports Complex that were seen miles away.

Besides just kite flying, the event had food trucks, a kite vendor, a live DJ, a candy canon, and games for kids to participate in between flying or watching kites.

Eight year old Isabel Clymer said she had a ball at the kite festival.

“I love it,” she exclaimed.

Although she loved the big kites, that wasn’t her favorite part.

“The games were my favorite,” she said.

Clymer said she loved the giant dog kite the best, and although she has been to the festival before, she herself had never flown a kite. That was until Sunday.

After winning one as a prize during a game of extreme Chicken Dance, she got the opportunity to do something she has never done before, fly her own kite.

‘“This is my first one,” said Clymer.

This year’s kite festival saw not only people from all over Grand Island, but all over the state come check out the event as the event continues to grow. Many of them were attending for the first time. People from ages zero to 80 and older came to watch the kites.

That’s the idea, said Deuel.

“We have had more and more people come from out of town,” she said

“They want to start a kite festival in their town now,” she added.

Deuel said the kite professionals are a large part of the growing interest in the sport.

“Our pro kite fliers, with their passion, do a great job of selling kite flying,” said Deuel.

Deuel said the kite festival is a family event that is designed to disconnect people from electronics for a while.

“It’s nice to get the families out untethered from their social networking and have fun,” she said.

After Saturday started as a dewey, cloudy day, it turned into a sunny day with a nice breeze.

Sunday was much different 96 degrees, but breezy. Both days had strong, consistent winds for flying.

Friends of Grand Island Parks provide support to the City of Grand Island in order to develop, maintain, and protect the public gardens for future generations.