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Kite Fest takes flight

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By Richard O Jones, Staff Writer 4:40 PM Wednesday, April 1, 2009

The skies will seem to come alive this weekend at Voice of America Park in West Chester Twp. as the fifth annual Otto M. Budig Family Foundation Kite Fest takes flight.

With its relatively high elevation and open fields, the park is the perfect place to fly a kite, said Debbie Von Bokern, a founding member of the Cincinnati Pigs Aloft Kite Club, which meets at VOA Park the second Sunday of each month.

"Places we used to go would either have circular winds or obstacles," she said. "But out there, the fields are open and the winds are clean."

Von Bokern said she and her husband started flying kites when they saw people flying unusual kites while on a vacation about 15 years ago.

"My husband wanted to fly them," she said. "It didn't sound like much fun at first, but it is. I'm an artist, so I saw that I could also make kites, and it's really fun to watch them fly."

Von Bokern said the first kite she made was a 8-foot long pterodactyl with a 16-foot wingspan.

"I started out making kites from patterns that I know would fly," she said. "They're already designed, but you can put your own artwork on them. Sometimes you alter the pattern enough that you'll have to teach the kite how to fly."

Jerry McGuire, another of the Pigs Aloft founders, also got bitten by the kite bug while on vacation in Florida about 20 years ago.

"We were driving along Fort Myers beach and I saw a kite in the air that was obviously being controlled by someone, so I went back and started talking to the guy," he said.

The next day, he bought his first stunt kite and took it back home to Michigan, where he lived at the time, and first flew it at a winter festival that was having a kite fly-in, and the hobby took off from there. Now McGuire said he's not sure how many kites he actually owns.

"I stopped counting at about 300," he said, "but like any other hobby, they get more and more sophisticated and expensive."

Some of his favorites are a 100-foot octopus and a 68-foot fish, both inflatable kites that look like giant stuffed animals when they fly — and offer so much wind resistance that their strings have 1,800-pound strength rating and need to be staked to the ground lest they lift their flier up into the wild blue.

At this year's Kite Fest, there will be demonstrations of the various types of kites as well as a special program by the Chicago Fire Kite Flying Team, which will present a "kite ballet" with six kites flying in sync to recorded music.

"Each member of that team is a national champion," McGuire said.

His club also has invited six other out-of-state fliers who will bring in their large show kites.

Other activities include:

Kite-making stations for kids to make their own kites for a nominal fee;

"Running of the Boles" parachute races for kids and their families;

Kite vendors;

Public spaces open for flying kites (bring your own or purchase one from a vendor); and

An indoor kite display at the Voice of America Museum.

"It's all about putting smiles on faces," McGuire said. "People ask me why I would spend so much money on a kite, and I just say, 'You should see your face in mirror right now.' "

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How to go

What: Kite Fest

When: Noon to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Where: The Voice of America Park and Museum, 8070 Tylersville Road, West Chester Twp.

Cost: Free admission; $2 parking

More info: Call (513) 241-8282; visit www.wguc.org/kitefest

Parking: Except for a limited number of handicapped spaces, all parking for this year's Kite Fest will be off-site at: Hopewell Elementary, 8300 Cox Road; Lakota East High School, 6840 Lakota Lane; and Miami University Voice of America facility, near the Cox Road entrance to VOA Park. Shuttle buses will take visitors to the festival grounds.

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