Hoist your kites!
KARATARA – The annual Garden Route Kite Festival (previously the Eden Kite Festival) is making a return this year for its sixth edition, and will be held once more in Karatara.
Kite festivals are held around the world and are spectacles of kites of all shapes. Some of the kites are as large as 30 metres – three-dimensional inflated flights of fantasy. Then there are the more traditional ones with sticks in them – though they are made with high-tech materials such as carbon fibre and ripstop nylon and are not at all like the ones we knew as kids.
At the festival there will be fun for the whole family. It's an opportunity to get out together into the fresh air and spend some time looking up for a change, at the amazing sight in the sky, rather than looking down at a screen! There will be a show of agility by Happy Dogs of Knysna, food and craft stalls, games of all kinds for children and even a tea garden, among other attractions.
Kiters are coming down from Pretoria and Port Elizabeth and our two Garden Route kiters, who have been to over 100 international kite festivals between them, will also feature. Each of these kiters has a spectacular range of kites for winds of all strengths. You'll be able to buy kites at the festival or make your own in one of the kite-making workshops.
The festival this year is in partnership with Wesgro and once again in aid of Masithandane. Masithandane does amazing work in the Garden Route District, providing pre-school facilities, a care and respite house centre, feeding schemes and many other activities in support of less advantaged communities.
The main beneficiary is the school bursary scheme that enables learners to access high schools in George and Knysna, and provides them with the basics such as stationery and school uniforms.
Get yourself out to Karatara on Sunday 9 October. The festival runs from 09:30 to 16:30. Entry costs are R20 for adults and R10 for children under 12.