Mangaluru: The day two 5th International Kite festival organized by the Rotary Club in association with Team Mangalore attracted a record breaking crowd at the Panambur beach here on January 17.
For the second day kite fliers from 13 countries exhibited their skills in kite flying at the beach. From toddlers to elderly people gathered at the beach to watch the variety of kites. The sky at the Panambur beach was looking colourful with hundreds of kites flying for “One Sky, One Earth, One Family”.
Addressing the gathering District minister in-charge B Ramanath Rai said, “After coming to the Panambur beach, has reminded me of my childhood days. We used to enjoy making kites and flying them. This is a beautiful event which has attracted thousands of people”. He further said that the Rotary club has celebrated the Kite festival in the international level. People from all walks of life and all ages have gathered here for the kite festival. DK is a very special district and whatever programmes we organize people support us, be it the Kola, beach festival or any other event, people are very supportive. You will never have such participating spirit in any other district. Some anti social elements trying to spoil the peace and brotherhood in the society. We should not give heed to such people. We need to organize the kite festival every year. We need to strengthen communal harmony among people through such events.
Speaking on the occasion MLC Ivan D’Souza said, “I did not even dream that Kite flying will get such a huge response. Kite fliers from 13 countries have come here to take part in the international kite festival. He congratulated the organizers for taking a brave step in organizing the international kite festival. Kuwait kite fliers are flying the kite with “We Love Mangalore”, Mangaloreans are good in hospitality because of our hospitality anyone can come to Mangalore, they love our city.
Gadis Widiyati from Singapore speaking on the occasion, said, “Mangaluru is a wonderful city in India. I have traveled many countries but Mangalore is wonderful, the hospitality, food and the people are very good. I will come back to Mangalore to take part in the kite festival in the coming years”.
Addressing the gathering DC A B Ibrahim said that coastal Mangaluru looks colourful. We reflect what we have and nothing negative about the district that is the positive aspect of the district. When we see the crowd at the Panambur beach we see there is unity among people and they support such events.
MLA J R Lobo speaking on the occasion said, it is a great experience I must say, more than a lakh of people have gathered here at the Panambur beach. Everyone is enthusiastic here. I have never seen such a huge crowd, gathering in one place. This shows how People are receptive for the tourism programmes. It is great that thirteen countries have participated in the kite festival. We have taken our name to thirteen countries. In the future many more countries will come forward to take part in the kite festival and it will be a great event for tourism. As a Mangalorean I am very proud of this event and all the Mangaloreans will be proud.
Team Kuwait came with their kite, “We Love Mangalore” showed their love towards Mangaluru. They loved the Ice cream of Ideals and they distributed Ideal ice cream for all the volunteers. All the kite fliers assured to come back to take part in the kite festival and requested the organizers to hold it every year.
The beach was filled with people and the sky was full of kites which showed that Mangaloreans are ever ready to support tourism related events. Yes, we need more and more such events to be organized in Mangaluru so that communal harmony and brotherhood prevails in the district.
Very good coverage by Violet and Alphie. Keep up the good work. Alphie had given a very good introduction of the international kite flyers and on the field interview with the flyers. Great photography from Violet. I had sent a link of this article to many of the International kite flyers and they were very exited about the same.