Soaring time with kites

Soaring time with kites

The sky over Marina Barrage erupted in colour over the weekend at the annual Kite Flying Festival.

Held over two days, the festival organised by Marina Barrage and the Singapore Kite Association, attracted more than 20,000 people.

This year's festival was held in conjunction with SG50 and saw kite displays from local and international kite flyers.

Madam Gadis Widayati, the association's secretary, said: "We invited kite flyers from eight countries. Kite-flying can foster a sense of brotherhood and bring people together, and it is amazing to connect with people from all over, no matter where you are from."

International teams included Iteam from Indonesia, and individuals like Andreas Ågren from Sweden and Trevor Reeves from Australia.

They were joined by local kite flying group Team Airnergy.

Other activities, like the Eco Wind Garden Workshop, saw participants making their own windmills out of recyclable materials and planting them in a designated "wind garden".

SG50 KITES

There was also a kite-making workshop where participants could create their own SG50 kites with eco-friendly materials, and Lolli-drop, where children could catch little parachutes falling from the sky that had sweets attached to them.

Mr Koh Kin Huat, 41, was at the festival on Sunday with his wife and three-year-old son.

He said: "We happened to see in the papers that there will be an event, so we brought along our own kites. We even joined the windmill workshop, it was fun."

Fans and participants also found the display of the larger kites exciting.

One of these was a puffer fish-shaped kite by Mr Frederique Riquier from France. It was 10m high when inflated.

Mr Koh said: "I had never seen kites of that size before. I was very impressed."

harizbah@sph.com.sg


This article was first published on August 4, 2015.
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