Berkeley Kite Festival

As I was planning things for us to do here in California, I came across a website called Everfest that lets you look up the festivals in your area and will even send you reminders when those events are coming up. I had fond memories of attending the Avodcado Festival with the Newcamps years ago and thought we could check some out.

Dan has recently received a kite as a gift, and has been wanting to better learn how to use it (it's fancy, don't ask me), so I thought he might like this kite festival in Berkeley. It turns out everyone likes the kite festival in Berkeley, and it's FREE (except for parking). It was seriously crowded. I wish we could have ridden bikes from near-by because the parking was far away and the lines for the shuttle were long!

We didn't arrive until about 3pm on Sunday but the events were in full swing. There were tons of kites in the sky, from a little kid's plastic CVS kite, to giant squid kites. The event is in a big field overlooking the city with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge from some directions. I unfortunately, brought a camera with no memory card (face-palm) so iPhone photos is all we've got. We brought our folding Mayfly chairs which were perfect, but a blanket would have been good too. There was plenty of space to plop down and watch the main events, and eat some festival food. The did have a tent that sold mangos and other fruit that was cut up right in front of you. It was a nice change from the usual fried food.

We only stayed for about two hours, but honestly, it was enough for us to enjoy it. This is a great event for kids, make sure you bring them a kite to fly. You can bring an all-terrain stroller, but you might be happier with backpacks for little kiddos.

Next year,  I would be there when it opens on Saturday and leave around lunch time, head to Berkeley Bowl to get lunch and check out their famously large produce section, and then combine with one of the museums on the Blue Star Museums pass this summer (there are three, go here to check it out) or a walk around the UC Berkeley campus which I hear is very nice.

P. S. It's hard to communicate the number of kites with a simple iPhone photo, so don't be turned off by these pictures. The sky was literally full of kites. It was very cool. We watched some kite dancing which was also impressive.

Happy Exploring!

Bethany