International Kite Festival Flies Into LBI This Weekend

LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ — Go fly a kite. Countless people, including professionals, will do the same this weekend across the island.

The fifth-annual LBI FLY International Kite Festival runs Friday through Sunday. The event brings colorful artist kite designs, giant inflatables and sport kiting shows to the LBI skies.

The first LBI Kite Festival included about 32 invited flyers. Now the event features more than 100 from across the United States, France, Germany, Colombia and Canada. Many of the invited guests are invited to highly ranked kite festivals around the world.

This year's festival will feature giant inflatables such as a full-size whale, fairytale horses, giant octopuses, flying scuba divers, crabs, pigs, sea urchins, trilobites, flying witches, and a giant yellow duck. There will also be plenty of carefully crafted artists kites that will also be displayed in local galleries.

The sporting kite displays will feature teams and individual flyers showing choreographed musical routines through the weekend. The festival will feature a competition.

The competition and festival puts LBI on the East Coast circuit for sport kiting in the United States.

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