SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA SECRETS: Berkele Kite Festival

Take 1000 kites plus 10,000 people plus a lovely day at the Berkeley Marina and what do you get? The Berkeley Kite Festival! This annual event draws kite fliers from around the world and kite lovers from all over the Bay Area.

We started our morning at the 4th Street Terrace where Peets is, then walked over the Hwy 880 walkover. This is a trip in itself, to be above all the traffic instead in the middle of it. Here is a photo from overhead:










The kite festival is one of the more visually interesting of all the Bay Area Festivals. There is a kite battle event, kite making activities, and a whole section devoted to a Kite-flying society from Hamamatsu, Japan. But the event that really blows me away is the Kite Ballet. This is where individuals or teams choreograph kite formations to music. The idea is hard to imagine and to catch in a still photo, but here is a video from a previous year.

I'm sure the organizers were delighted to have the right combination of wind --- to please the kites, and sun -- to please the people, and everyone had a great lazy summer day.