Kites of bright colours, innovative designs and shapes adored the skies and mesmerised the crowd during the International Kite Festival held at Panambur beach, which was launched on Friday.
The highlight of this year’s Kite festival was the participation of many professional kite flyers from across the world.
Twelve out of 21 participants, taking part in the three-day festival, are from foreign countries.
Kites based on the theme of superheroes, animals, birds, reptiles, imaginary characters and also folk themes, left the crowd amused.
The wind turbine kites held testimony to the creativity of its makers. One of the teams even gave a divine touch to the festival by designing a kite on the shape of Lord Hanuman.
Panambur Beach Development Authority (PBDA) Chairman Yatish Baikampadi said the international kite festival besides promoting tourism was a platform for unity. People of different nationalities have come under a single umbrella, he added.
"The event is not a competition. The festival should be witnessed by the people, along with their families, as it creates good memories," he said.
Yatish said the kite festival was being organised for the second time in Mangaluru. Kite flying under floodlights will be an added attraction, he said.
Ron Spaulding from USA and his wife Baew Spaulding from Thailand, known popularly as the 'Kite couple', said they travel around the world with their kites and had participated in many international kite festivals. They were participating in the kite festival in Mangaluru for the second time, they revealed.
Team Mangaluru's Giridhar Kamath said his team was taking part in the festival in Mangaluru since 2007.
Participants
Participants representing foreign countries in the International Kite Festival are Hendrik Jan Grutterink, Margrietha A Grutterink Ev Kruit and Raymond Euphemia De Graph from Netherlands; Tan Xinbo and Shi Shan from China (first time participants); Ron Spaulding and Baew Spaulding from Thailand; Antonius Hernawan P.ldn and Liannawati Lie from Indonesia; Rachel Lubaton and Ephraim Meyer from Israel and Agren Sverker Andreas from Sweden.
From India, Team Mangalore, Mahesh Chawda and Yash Chawda from Rajkot; Vikram Bavalia and Shubham Kamdar from Rajkot and K Srinivas, Merugu Ashok Kumar, Thonda Mahesh and Palsam Sravan Kumar from Hyderabad participated in the festival.
New Mangalore Port Trust (NMPT) Chairman A V Raman inaugurated the International Kite Festival. Mangalore North MLA Dr Y Bharat Shetty and Mangaluru City Corporation (MCC) Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Gayathri Nayak and others were also present.