I F YOU’RE IN BERKELEY IN JULY, YOU CAN’T kite showers down candy, tiding kids over until miss the kites. After almost 20 years, the Halloween. “We had the first candy drop anywhere Berkeley Kite Festival is a time-honored tradi- in the world,” McAlister delights in mentioning. “It’s tion and one of the largest kite festivals on the West kind of silly, but hey — we’re proud of it.”
Coast, attracting kite-flying professionals, families He’s just as proud of the festival’s other acts.
with children, and casual passersby. Held on park- Over the hill from the families are the professionals:
land surrounding the Berkeley Marina, you can see champion kite fliers mix with giant three-dimensional
the kites — swooping, billowing, and soaring — from kittens dancing in the wind, team kite demonstra-
almost anywhere in the surrounding hills. tions share airspace with exhibition kites, and kite
Tom McAlister, in love with the beauty and acces- manufacturers like Prism, Revolution Kites, and
sibility of kites, founded the festival in a desire to Ozone let kite buffs test out their latest designs.
give back to his community. “At the time,” he points The bronzed Ray Bethell, a seemingly ageless
out, “most festivals were primarily either children’s multiple-kite-flying world champion, draws gasps
events or exhibitions for professionals. We wanted to from even the most seasoned kite watchers with
offer all of the best that modern kiting had to offer.” his nimble fingers and whizzing stacks of kites. Kite
McAlister, whose stepfather built gyrocopters, aerial ballet groups perform with 96 kites at once,
grew up loving anything that flew. He discovered kites and 20,000 square feet of Peter Lynn’s giant crea-
in college, and started selling them out of the back of ture kites gallop, slither, and leap in the wind.
his Honda Civic in 1985. “You can be a kid or an 80- All in all, to say the event is “fun for the whole
year-old in a wheelchair,” he says, “and for a modest family” is understating it, but there is more in the
investment be cutting up the sky like the Red Baron.” appeal of kites than mere child’s play. They have
Lucky for him, he was in kite-flying heaven: long been a symbol of freedom and hope (check
Berkeley, just opposite the Golden Gate, is directly out national newspaper archives for images of kite
in the path of some truly gorgeous and reliable flying, and you’ll often see articles about emerging
wind. Over time, the weekend gig turned into a full- democracy), and it seems hard to find someone
time job, and the festival blossomed, too. The timing who doesn’t like them. Mc Alister, who has been
was perfect: a park was being constructed on top designing his own kites for 15 years, is a firm
of landfill when the festival began, and as the park believer in kites as an art form: “That doesn’t mean
grew, the festival swelled to fill it, now attracting every kite is art — and most aren’t — but there’s
crowds of up to 25,000 people every summer. the potential, whether it’s the design or the act of
And diverse crowds they are. Your first sight once flying.” When asked why he thought the festival had
you actually get to the festival is a hilltop covered in been so successful, he says: “A wise old man once
picnic blankets and tangled kite strings, as little kids told me, ‘Kites are holding the wind in your hand.’”
run amok trailing kites behind them. The variety is
beautiful to see: there are elaborate, store-bought
dragons clashing joyfully with colorful, homemade
box kites and simple, hand-painted classic diamonds.
Berkeley Kite Festival, July 29– 30, 2006 www.highlinekites.com/Berkeley_Kite_Festival
The ecstasy is palpable. In the afternoon, everyone streams over to the demonstration area, where a Arwen O’Reilly is staff editor at MAKE.
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