Southern Oregon Kite Festival

This is the 17th annual version of this festival held at the Port of Brookings and judging from the license plates covering the western states and beyond, it must be a fairly big deal festival of its kind. I arrived right around opening time of 10am, and the crowds were already thick.

Never having been to a kite festival, I really didn't know what to expect. I've seen photos of large balloon-kites, and I'm sure those will be out before the weekend is over, but this morning was a competition of sorts, apparently, with people making kites dance to music. I had no idea kites could be controlled and tweaked such as this, and found it fascinating to watch. Harder to photograph! It's a surprisingly athletic endeavor as well, judging from the two or three that I watched. The young man above was flying what I think they referred to as a quad kite, which has 16 strings to control! As you can see from the photo, it's a two-handed job.

This is his kite -- hard to see in the fog and hard to photograph well using a telephoto, so it's a tad blurry. Too bad this isn't a video, as he literally makes it dance, obedient to his every whim.

When did kites get so fancy? This one was on display in a vendor's booth. I liked it's color and symmetry. I was tempted to buy myself a beginner's kite, but didn't. When one lives on a breezy beach, it could be a good toy to try and master. Addictive, too, undoubtedly.

I'm sure the weekend will bring much excitement and far more visual stimulation than any of this, but I was not of a mood to tarry.