Written by Niterider, Dave Soutar (Vice President)
Clock Shop Kite Festival – May 9th, 2026
I arrived early, greeted Isabel, One of the event coordinators. I set my gear down in the Kite Masters popup tent. Crossed the field to general operations, grabbed my Kite Masters vest, and donned it on.
There were a few early bird pilots flying kites, the wind was light, the day was warm and sunny. Isabel directed me to my area where I was to help, it was close to the main entrance to the field. The venue was still sparse, so I grabbed my little fighter and lifted her into the air, darting back and forth in the light breeze. People started slowly moving into the venue as the time for the festival was about to begin. As they passed, some would ask, “You can fly that kite without a tail?” as the little kite darted back and forth. And as the crowd thickened, a few began to notice that I was there to help, hastily pulling in my little flyer and stowing it away, the day begins.
I noticed a couple trying to launch their newly purchased kite, it kept crashing to the ground. As I walked over, I noticed that the spars had been installed backward, setting the sail forward. I asked, “Having trouble, would you like any help?” as I approached. They piped up, “Yes, we can’t get it to fly!” “Well,” I said, “let’s take a look.” I picked up the fallen kite, explaining that the spar brace was backwards. Just then I heard their son pipe up, “See Mom, I was right.” The mother acknowledged the son. The brace was corrected, I held the kite up, the couple gave a slight tug on the line, and they were pilots as the kite lifted into the air! Smiles all around. And that is how my day started. After that it was non stop until the sun went down. People coming up and asking how to fly a kite. I must have launched 100 kites that day.
The San Diego Kite Club will be returning to this festival for many years to come. Isabel Yi Jimenez (Artist Project Manager) left us with a post event review and update. Here is what she shared.
Last Saturday, in the blustery heat of a mid-May day at Los Angeles State Historic Park, we ushered in the sixth installment of Clockshop’s Kite Festival. It’s a special marker of time for me — the first event of theirs I attended, mere weeks before joining their team, was the second annual — and I’ve seen it grow and change in many ways in years past. Not just literally, as we’ve expanded to welcome an audience of an astonishing 10,000 people, but also in the deepening of our relationships across our core programs and new additions.
Since the beginning, we’ve invited a cohort of kite masters — expert pilots, makers, and artists — to showcase their own kites and flying skills and help out folks struggling to get their kites in the air. This year, Don Fox and Dave Soutar, two members of the San Diego Kite represented. In the moments I was able to break away from the kite competition area, I’d come across them on the field, a different kite in hand each time, coaching its owner on the physics of flight — by the end of the day, they’d wrangled countless untangled lines and retrieved stuck kites and first flights. Dave kindly offered his experience as a judge in the competition, and upon the close of the youth competition, he recalled helping one kid and their parent get their kite in the air for nearly an hour.
From the south lawn, rising high above parkgoers, was The Weather, a commissioned artwork by Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader. It consisted of five large-scale inflatable sculptures, each 11 feet high, lifted by one pilot kite. The symbols are taken from an expression in ASL, “finger to the wind,” a metaphor alluding to watchfulness or hoping for the best that looks like raising a finger to check for wind direction. San Diego Kite Club connected us with Charles Gillespie and Jolly Roger, who piloted this artwork with the steadfastness and graceful maneuvering that only comes with years of experience, and for over two hours.
This was the second year that we’ve partnered with San Diego Kite Club, and what a privilege it’s been to meet more of the kite community, learn from them, and be swept up in their enthusiasm for the craft of kites. This festival, as all of Clockshop’s programs, are what they are only through those connections, and in the years to come, we hope to return to nurture this and welcome the club and their members again and again.
