The Washington State International Kite Festival (WSIKF) is an annual week-long kite celebration and competition in breezy Long Beach, WA. Held during the third full week of August, starting on Monday and ending on Sunday, WSIKF is presented by the World Kite Museum and the City of Long Beach, Washington. Kitelife Magazine calls it “the greatest, grandest Kite Festival on the North American continent”.
Long Beach Peninsula, Washington State (Long Beach Visitors Bureau)
About Long Beach, Washington
Washington’s Long Beach Peninsula offers the quintessential beach town experience — 28 miles of silver sand, delectable seafood, go-karts and bikes rides, horseback beach trips and Pacific Ocean sunsets. It’s fun for all ages. Events, festivals and concerts punctuate nearly every weekend. Hiking, fishing, biking, and other outdoors activities are year-round favorites.
Kite shops, resident kite flyers, and the World Kite Museum & Hall of Fame (a must-see attraction for everyone!) provide enjoyment for kite enthusiasts and first-time flyers alike. With wide sandy beaches and coastal breezes, Long Beach has been called the Kite Capital of the U.S.
From quaint cottages to motels, resorts, hotels & condominiums, you have a wide variety of lodging choices. When planning a trip, make reservations as early as possible during the peak season (roughly Spring Break through mid-October), and particularly over festival and holiday celebrations.
Dining options include everything from a quick oyster burger and fries to five-star dining in outstanding settings. Gourmet fare often features Northwest Regional Cuisine, notable for its use of seasonal, locally gathered ingredients-an abundance of fresh fish and seafood, game, wild berries of all kinds, wild mushrooms, cranberries, and more.
In addition to the town of Long Beach, the Long Beach Peninsula boasts a string of coastal communities with award-winning restaurants, seafood markets, unique accommodations, shops, and galleries. Attractions include national and state parks, the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, two historic lighthouses, an eight-mile coastal bike and pedestrian trail, the Willapa Bay National Wildlife Refuge, one-of-a-kind museums, and a 20-mile stretch of public beach.
About the World Kite Museum
World Kite Museum in Long Beach, Washington is a non-profit organization dedicated to the thrill, art, science, sport, and history of kites worldwide. The museum houses artifacts, archives and displays in a 10,350 sq. ft. two-story facility. There is a modest admission fee.
The museum’s exhibits and educational events introduce the kite as a multicultural art, in celebrations, modern day design, pulling power and application to energy production. During summer, the museum is open daily and the rest of the year it is open weekends. Visit their website for more info: World Kite Museum
Long Beach Peninsula 2016 kite festival image via Long Beach Visitors Bureau
About the Washington State International Kite Festival
In 1981, the first kite festival was a humble gathering of nine participants and one kite team. This first kite festival still holds the Guinness record for keeping a kite in the air for the longest time – 180 hours (7.5 days). The team from Edmunds Community College set that record. In 1983, the festival began attracting an international audience with flyers from Japan.
Today, WSIKF is one of the largest kite festivals in North America, enticing thousands of visitors from around the world, including enthusiast kite flyers from Australia, Italy, England, Indonesia, New Zealand, India, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Brazil, China, and other far-reaching places.
Each year featured flyers from around the world add a unique blend of art and ingenuity to the week’s colorful skies. Fighter kites, kite ballet, fireworks, competitions, exhibitions, and the magical lighted night flies are among the festival’s many highlights. Four mass ascensions promise a spectacular exhibit of 250 kites in the air at one time.
Spectators of all ages can enjoy many visual attractions and are invited to participate in kite building, flying competitions, and hands-on activities throughout the festival. Food booths, merchandise and kite vendors line the approach adding to the festive atmosphere.
2024 Washington State International Kite Festival
The largest and longest running Kite Festival in North America is a week-long, family friendly event with competitions and other activities in and around Long Beach on Washington’s coast.
When: August 19-25, 2024
Where: The Kite Festival takes place a couple of blocks from downtown Long Beach on the expansive beach on the Pacific Ocean coastline, along the Bolstad beach approach and adjacent to a ½-mile long boardwalk – an excellent viewing platform during the event. Lodging during the festival can fill up quickly so reservations well in advance.
Admission: The Kite Festival is free to spectators. Entry fees are required for competitions.
Website: Washington State International Kite Festival – World Kite Museum
Event calendar of free and affordable things to do
Listed below are all types of free and affordable things to do in the next 30 days.
Featured Events are listed first each day, highlighted by a photo. These are unique, popular, or annual events that we or our advertisers don’t want you to overlook.
Find more events and ideas for affordable living at Greater Seattle on the Cheap – Free things to do, cheap fun, discounts and deals in the Seattle-Tacoma metro area
