Mangaluru: 5th International Kite Festival ‘One Sky, One Earth, One Family’ Attracts Huge Crowd at Panambur

Mangaluru: The 5th International Kite Festival was organized by the Rotary clubs of Zone IV Mangalore in association with Team Mangalore with the motto of ‘One Sky, One Earth, One Family’, at the Panambur beach here, on January 16.

The Panambur beach was crowded with people of all ages, who had come to enjoy the international kite festival. There were 24 Foreign fliers from 13 countries. 3 Indian teams from Dahanu, Mumbai and Hyderabad also took part in the two-day kite festival.

Kite fliers from Kuwait, Cambodia, Thailand, France, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, France, Ukraine and India displayed their kite flying skills and unique kites.

There was a display of awesome night kites, they are the  combination of traditional kite concept with modern technology, comprising ultra-light material, LED lights and laser. They light up the night sky with a mesmerising display.

Speaking to Mangalorean.com, Rtn Nitin explained the concept of night flying, wherein spot lights are installed around the fly zone and the lights are focused on the kites, thus making the original colour of the kites visible to everyone on the ground. “This night flying of kites is being conducted successfully for the first time in India. We had tried this activity back in 2012 but it was not successful due to the presence of the crowd in the fly zone. Hence, this time we tried it out on a Saturday as there would be less crowd and fly zone was secured with barricades.”

He also commented on the kites ‘white doves’ which were looking so good in the air that it was pleasure to watch them. “People were excited to see the variety of kites flying in the air. We will continue the kite flying on Sunday,” he added.

Beach lanterns made by Satish Rao and Pranesh from Team Mangalore added more colour to the night flying kites. A Puspaka Vimana with LED lights and a sting ray fish were also on display. Women along with their children were flying kites on the beach and enjoying the evening. It was a festival for kite lovers at the Panambur beach.

President of Rotary club Elias Sanctis, Yathish Baikampady, Sarvesh Rao, Dinesh Holla and others were present at the event.