Colourful kites offer uplifting experience

‘Almost everyone feels lighter when they simply lift their heads and look up’

KITERS from all over the world will fill the Muizenberg skies with colourful kites this weekend at the 22nd International Kite Festival.

The theme this year is #BornToFly. Organisers of Africa’s biggest kite festival. The Cape Mental Health’s Heideveld Special Education and Care Centre welcomed participating kiters from as far as Canada, Germany, England, New Zealand and Singapore yesterday.

International and local kiters will visit Khayelitsha and fly kites with a small group of children from Cape Mental Health’s Imizamo Yethu Special Care and Education Centre today.

Cape Mental Health director Ingrid Daniels said the organisation believed that everyone was born with a potential to fly beyond life’s circumstances.

“Our mission is to help people realise their potential and overcome mental health challenges they may encounter. Kites are one of the tools we use. Almost everyone feels lighter when they simply lift their heads and look up,” she said.

Apart from the event being Africa’s largest kite festival, it is also South Africa’s biggest mental health awareness event, with 100 percent of the profits going to help provide vital mental health services to children and adults in Cape Town and beyond.

The festival offers affordable, feel-good, family fun with free kite-making workshops daily, including specialist sessions with master kite-maker Ebrahim Sambo, from Athlone, who will be showing how to create a traditional Cape swaeltjie (swallow) kite.

With a market, food trucks and tea garden, there will be plenty of food options, or bring along picnic supplies and let your spirit soar as you watch some of the world’s most amazing kites embrace African skies.

Entry is R30 (R10 for children 12 years and under). Tickets are available at www.capementalhealth.co.za until today and at the gate. For more information, visit the website or contact Cape Mental Health on 021 447 9040, e-mail info@cmh.org.za or follow it on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @CTKiteFest

Picture: BRENTON GEACH BUBBLING OVER: Children at the Heideveld Sports Centre are entertained by Ralf and Lucas Maserski from Germany, who bought a specially made aerial bubble machine for this year’s kite festival.

Picture: MICHAEL WALKER CREATIVE: A large assortment of kites were on show at last year’s event.

Picture: BRENTON GEACH SHOW-STOPPER: Ralf and Lucas Maserski from Germany’s bat kite proved to be a hit. Apart from the 22nd International Kite Festival being Africa’s largest, it is also South Africa’s biggest mental health awareness event.