Tom from Highline Kites does a great job of putting on a very nice festival in Bereley. Normally working out of his mobile kite shop, maybe the smallest kite shop in America, he draws some incredible combinations of kite flyers and enthusiasts to the festival. Tom is the kite ambassador of Cesar Chavez Park, next to the Berkeley Marina. The park was a garbage dump, rescued and made into a wonderful walking, kite flying, dog walking, and bird watching park. The wind off of the San Francisco Bay creates sufficient and continuous wind. This year it was favorable weather and wind, even if a little overcast Sat. morning, warming throughout the day. The views from the park of the Bay and the bridges was post card perfect.

For me the drawing card was the Hamamatsu, Japan delegation who assembled and flew the huge Machijirushi traditional paper and bamboo kites. Their thirty two line bridle, one half inch main rope, and twenty foot bamboo spars give new meaning to make your own kite out of paper and sticks! Each kite was paraded around, while horns blew, drums thumped, and the delegation acted out a mini version of their annual kite festival, which back in Japan would be complete with 170 teams, and full scale kite battles for the last 448 years! Here we caught a taste of that traditional celebration without having to travel to Japan and without the crowd of 1.5 million people.

The colors of the Hamamatsu kites, the traditional clothing worn by the teams, and the flags waved in procession, and the noises made the Berkeley Festival unique in comparison to other kite festivals around the US. I went mainly to see these kites, and I was not disappointed.

The Berkeley Kite Wranglers wowed us with 13 giant octopus. They called it Octopile 2006! It was spectacular! The hillside rises to create an updraft allowing these big inflatable kites to fly in closer proximity than anything I’ve seen before. The massing of colors, and waving tentacles is mesmerizing. Pilots like John Khan, Mike North, the Hogans, and Joe Taitt were joined by the King and Queen of the giant kite world, David and Susan Gomberg.

Manufacturers were here, each with their own flying field: Ozone with their power kites, boards and buggies, Revolution with Ben and Lolly, and Prism Designs with Mark Reed showing us some new Quantum Pro’s in beautiful laser designs.

The Bay Area Sport Kite League organized the competitions. Rokkaku battles, mass ascensions, children’s kite making classes, and hundreds of families flew kites all over the field, while the Octopile and the Hamamatsu kites hung in the air as backdrop. The grass underneath here makes this much more enjoyable than sand. The green carpet beneath and blue sky filled with color makes this my favorite festival for visual pallet; every scene is like a painting.

How to best enjoy the Berkeley Kite Festival, held the last weekend in July. First arrive Thursday or Friday early. Make early reservations and stay at the adjoining Double Tree Hotel. Mention the festival rate or use AAA or internet for discounts. Lots of folks want a room looking out toward the park. But this is also a view of the noisy parking lot, and the trees make it hard to see the festival. So stay in a room in the interior courtyard or step up to a view of the Marina and Bay. Go to the field on Friday and fly there before it is all full of people on Sat. and Sunday. Once you arrive at the hotel you don’t have to fight the traffic and parking each day of the festival. Dinner meals here are $20 plus, but excellent food. You can meet flyers in the bar, have meals together, walk across the street to the festival, come back for lunch or rest, etc. And plan on staying through till Mon. so you can go on the Sunday night dinner cruise and kite auction on the Bay with all the flyers. We did not leave time for the cruise and were sorry. Fly in and out of Oakland, not San Francisco. You can cab or take a shuttle buss, no need to rent a car that just sits there in the parking lot. I highly recommend this festival. Don’t miss it.

Mike Hale, Kiteguy@kitestoo.com