Lampung Kite Festival 2008: Paint the Sky With Kite

---

Something is flying up in the sky: Bird-shaped Kite. Not far from it, a plane-shaped kite float stable. It is not usual evening. This evening, the sky above Taman Hutan Kota is decorated with bright color and creatively shaped kite, flown by those who participate in Lampung Kite Festival 2008.

Lampung Kite Festival is part or Krakatau Festival, the annual event organized by the provincial government of Lampung. Organized by Lampung Kite Community, the festival invited all those who have passion towards kite to compete in creating not only the most beautiful & nice looking kite, but also has the stability when flown.

The festival received warm welcome. People of all ages came with friends, spouse or family. Some come with public transport; others come by riding a motorbike. Kids from neighborhood don’t want to be left out, riding their bicycle to the park. As if unaffected by the hot weather of Lampung, they ride around the vast field, or chasing after each other.

It is the final day of the competition, where the best of the best kite will be judged. I’m sure the jury will have a hard time, considering how beautiful those kites are. I see in amazement as the kites were held up high, ready to be released at any time. There are brown peacock with golden beak, Garuda carrying the national flag and square sail with long banner attached, which wrote: “Lampung Kite Festival.

The time has come, and the kite was released to the air. Three out of four took off successfully, while the brown peacock failed to fly, due to previous tear. Too bad, because I think it is the best one. As the jury score the kite’s stability in the air, the kites fly higher and higher and higher.

For a moment, I’m distracted with several other kites on the ground, those which is unfortunate to compete in final round. Nevertheless, they still seem created with high creativity and passion. There are cat-shape, manta ray, superman, batman, swallow, and also dragonfly. It would be wonderful if those kites could also flies, along with the other.

As a closing to the festival, the organizer has prepared a hilarious show: train kite show. There are 2 set of train kite being flown. The first one, consist of 30 large kites, looks like a flying roller coaster, or flying caterpillar, depends on your imagination. Besides being beautiful, this train kite could also provide enormous, environment friendly energy. So powerful the energy that, it should be anchored to a car!

The second train kite are also no less fascinating. Three hundred kite tied together, so long that, after the last kite flies, we can barely see the first kite up high in the sky. All of this are like a staircase to heaven.

I usually never paid attention to kite festival, which also once in a while organized in Jakarta. But after this, I would definitely consider to see one here.

Photo is uploaded at http://www.pbase.com/bennyc/lampung_kf_2008

The Kite Festival Homepage is available at http://www.lampungkitefestival.com/ (Bahasa Indonesia only)

---

Photos

Festival Banner Kite
One of the participant, with long tail festival banner attached to the kite

Small Train Kite
Total Kite flown is around 300, dubbed one of the longest train kite

Another Train Kite
This one can drag a man up high in the sky....