When the wind blows, the sky will be painted with pieces of art in myriad colors, shapes and sizes -- all attached to a dangling string below. Those flashes of color are meant to inspire happiness and festivity, especially this year as a celebration is planned around them.
The Antelope Island Balloon and Kite Stampede runs today through Sunday. Kites are new this year, and promise to bring professional kite flyers and hobbyists to put on aerial demonstrations with their huge, intricate kites.
The event also includes live entertainment, art and craft vendors, tethered balloon rides, balloon glows at 8:30 p.m. each night, launches at 6 p.m. each night and at 7:30 a.m. Saturday and Sunday, and kite flying and building demonstrations.
For people like Rachel Wentz, who will be demonstrating at the kite festival, the experience is magical and evokes so many things that she loves.
"I love to stand in the wind," the Orem woman says. "I love the sound of the rip-stop nylon snapping against the wind. I love bright colors and flowing tails.
"I love the eerie 'sizzle' that a line makes when tension is about to overcome it."
Wentz remembers first flying kites as a small child when she lived in Washington and Oregon. She said kite flying is more prevalent there than in Utah.
"When we visited the Pacific Northwest on family vacations, my brothers and I saved our money so that we could buy 'real kites' as our souvenirs," Wentz said. "We discovered when we were very young that there is a marked difference between quality fabric kites and the plastic toy-store models.
"All the kids in our neighborhood envied our kites, which launched easily and flew steadily while other kites made nose-dives."
Those memories were enough to ignite a lifelong enjoyment of kite flying. She said she loves the feeling of power in a taut kite line as well as the way it takes her stress away. But she mostly loves how holding a kite line makes strangers in a park feel comfortable walking up and asking her questions about kites.
Toys for big kids
Kevin Bayless, chairman of the kite event, knows what kites can do for people and the intrigue they can inspire. Last year, the Antelope Island event did not include kites. But Bayless, who lives in Taylorsville, was there for about six or seven hours, flying his large foil and some stunt kites.
That's when organizers decided that adding the kites would complement the visual aspect of the balloons.
"Kites are thought of as kids toys, and they are," Bayless said. "We are just big kids with big toys."
Bayless bought his first kite around 1990 when he lived in Southern California. It was an 8-foot-wing-span stunt kite made from sailcloth and carbon fiber frames. It cost more than $200.
"When my wife found out, she asked me, 'You spent how much on what?' " he remembers. "Needless to say, if I wanted to get a bigger kite collection, I would have to make them myself."
And he did. He even got a business license and started selling them to kite stores in Southern California with his friend Tad
Wakeman. They made them in his garage and sold them to buy more supplies and
attend festivals.
Though he doesn't sell them anymore, Bayless does still make them.
"For me, the design process and the act of sewing and putting a kite together is almost as relaxing as flying them," he said. "But flying them is a chance to forget about everything else that may be going on.
"The simple act of holding a kite line attached to a piece of art that I made, flying in the air, is calming and gives me a sense of accomplishment. I made it, and it flies."
His most elaborate creation is a 15-by-20 foot "soft" kite that is known as a parafoil. It has no frame. He describes it as being bigger than a parachute and made of individual pieces of scrap fabric sewn together. It took him three months to make.
Making art
Wakeman's most elaborate kite was an "Easyrider" twin stack, which involved the use of intricate appliqué.
With every creation and flight, kites bring out the artistic nature in his own personality, says Wakeman, of Murray.
"I truly believe that watching a kite fly is somewhat like the feeling you get when you are watching a campfire," Wakeman said. "It is mesmerizing."
Fellow kitemaker and enthusiast Ron Gibian, of Visalia, Calif., said he finds inspiration for his kites and aerial sculptures in nature. He has used insects, birds and fish to inspire single-surface kites, as well as more complicated three-dimensional objects.
His creations range from techno-inspired kites with lines and dots to circular kites called "roundtuits," which are based on a classic Japanese round kite design.
"What I want to do in the sky is to create inspiring visual images," he said in his bio. "I want to inspire, excite and provoke those who are looking at what I have done to confront their own sensibilities so that they can see the sky and the world in a new, more open way."
Gibian is the son of a famous Chilean artist, Gerardo Gibian, who emigrated from Austria to Chile in 1939. The younger Gibian said the constant world of art, music and creative life pulsed through his household and inspired him to be an artist through his kites, as well as a musician.
Gibian began making kites in 1985. Twenty-six years later, his work with kites has taken him around the world to 26 countries and 30 states to various kite festivals.
He said he is happy to be part of the first festival at Antelope Island.
"It's very exciting," he said. "We are there to assist and fly our own art. Hopefully, this show will make an impression and become a huge, family event."
PREVIEW
WHAT: Antelope Island Balloon and Kite Stampede
WHEN: 5-10 p.m. today, 7 a.m.-10 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
WHERE: Antelope Island State Park, seven miles west of Interstate 15's Exit 332; take Antelope Drive west through Syracuse to entrance gate.
TICKETS: $10/vehicle
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