Kite festival cancelled

Deteriorating ice conditions, open water create safety concerns

For the first time in its 12-year history, Clear Lake’s Color the Wind Kite Festival scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 16, has been cancelled.  

Warm weather, rain and winds degraded the ice at the downtown Seawall to the point where festival 

organizer Larry Day said he became concerned with safety.  Day made the decision Monday to cancel the event.

Day said he tested the ice in the Seawall area Sunday and found ice to be approximately four-inches thick.  The depth increased as he ventured further out on the lake.  But Sunday and Monday’s high winds rapidly expanded the open water created by aerators in the downtown area.  By Monday morning the vast majority of the Seawall frontage, extending hundreds of yards north and south, was open water.  Water was also visibly flowing along an ice heave located about 50-yards from the shoreline.

Day said the small amount of ice and shoreline available in the downtown area would not provide enough room for kite enthusiasts and professional kite flying teams to entertain with their stunt kites. He was also opposed to relocating the festival to another area of the lake, saying there is not enough space or parking at other venues.  Color the Wind typically entertains 6,000 to 7,000 people each year and is the largest winter kite festival in the Midwest.  

In its early years, the kite festival was held at Clear Lake - Read More Via e-Edition