Fiasco at the Fort,
Now this is a Festival!
On the 12 of May, 2000, the Helwigs, my sister and I attended the Habitat for Humanity benefit kite festival in Fort Bragg. Having attended last year we thought we knew what to expect. But hoo wee!! Only Mel Brooks could of written the script for this one!
We arrived early and as invited guests we were assigned a large field of our own marked off with tape and signs in which to wow the crowds with our kites and flying prowess. With little (no) wind we went about setting up everything we own and setting out our lines so we could pop up a great show when the expected wind arrived. Tim Helwig did the same with his big kites.
At first we had no problem with our "territory". It was only the wind being problematic, making several 360° shifts. Not a serious problem for sister and I to turn around our 6 or 7 kites. Ole Tim, however, was running out of humor by the third time he moved his 252 Sutton, dragged a couple hundred feet of "Rope" and moved his anchor (his truck).
Then someone must have sounded the starting bell, because like a stampeding herd, even before the wind started to pick up, we were literally overrun by hundreds of kids, moms, dads, families running in all directions with all descriptions of kites and flying things. It happened so fast and was so out of control that none of us could get our kites and lines out of the way of the onrush! I have never seen anything like this before! It was an unbelievable muck up with lines tangled, kites nearly trampled, kids shrieking and parents hollering orders right and left. One women was actually upset that she had gotten her feet tangled in the kite line that I innocently laid out in MY field!!
In the middle of
the pandemonium I spotted Tim running for his life as a
huge kite, nearly 20 feet across, made out of 1 inch
plastic pipe and Tyvek, made by a local scout troop, took
a bead on him! ... After that we didn't see Tim for
several hours ... I think he had to find a Laundromat!
I fell back into my chair and
stared at the scene! And you know what, the anger (and
fear) I was feeling changed into a big smile as I began
to realize that THIS was a kite festival; THIS madness
was the whole darn community out having a festival. This
town was not going to sit and watch a small bunch of pros
fly kites. By God they were going to fly!
AND fly they did! What a riot it
was to see hundreds infected with the same passion some
of us have know. How cool it was to watch the fun they
were having, what a thrill to hear the little ones giggle
as they felt the wind take their special craft up for the
first time!
Then the wind went from barely useable, past usable, beyond high, right up to "Hang on"! It had to be twenty-five and our "new fliers" were having a ball!
It wasn't long before I couldn't stand it any longer and had 5 or 6 kites up there in the largest sky battle I'd ever joined in on! As I sent my wind warriors skyward I noticed the Bay Area Sundowners (pros that they are) jumping into the fray! These guys, against impossible winds and crowds, continued to fly routines unhampered even by cheap plastic kites stuck in their stacks!
By the middle of the day there must have been 200 kites including mine, swooping, diving, crashing, shooting sideways and darting about! Lines were being cut right and left, but it was unbelievable that nothing good was broken or lost and tempers stayed cool. We lent out kites to the kiteless, adjusted or repaired numerous kites and we gave on the spot flying lessons to newly hatched kite fanatics all day long.
If there ever was a community kite festival, this is it, and by days end we all had smiles on our faces and dozens of new friends. I knew for sure I had fun because I could barely hobble to the van at the end of the day!
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This page was last updated March 13, 2003 11:42 PM