Santa Barbara Kite Festival

The theme and date has been announced for the 2023 Santa Barbara Kite Festival. The theme of this year’s family-friendly kite festival is “Colors”. Festival Kite Master Rakesh Bahadur and Festival Director David Hefferman chose this year’s theme to celebrate the contributions and beauty festival goers bring to the event each year. Rakesh noted “It’s always amazing to us how many colors are added to the sky by entire families of kite flyers. Everyone is welcome.” David added “It’s our 37th festival. Several local festivals are of a similar age. We are honored to add more color this year to the legacy of festivals in our community.”
Sure to generate more colors and laughter this year, the “Childrens’ Tail Chase” features groups of kids divided into various age groups, chasing and trying to capture the tail of a kite expertly flown by Mr. Bahadur. The festival’s busy schedule is also packed with a number of family-friendly kite contests including “Most Beautiful” (handmade & commercial), “Highest Flying”, “Largest & Smallest Kites”, ”Youngest & Oldest Kite Flyers”, “Most Unique Or Unusual Kite”, “Funniest Kite”, and “Most Unflyable Kite”! And, the kite festival now awards “Best of Fest” -recognizing the best overall kite entry and participant of the day. Finally, the “Lions Award”, created in the memory of local legend Chad Dreier and his loving family-long time supporters of the festival , will be awarded to the person who makes the greatest contribution to the success of this year’s event.