San Francisco Family Day Kite Festival

The San Francisco Family Day Kite Festival was an annual family field event that I transformed into a spectacle that used kites as a vehicle to showcase wind as a renewable energy resource.

The festival brought together multiple forms of landborne and waterborne kiting that included Indian fighter kites, giant show kites, kite buggies, and kite-propelled boats . Lawrence Hall of Science, Da Vinci: An Exhibition of Genius, the Exploratorium, and Howtoons presented wind-related interactive activities. Competitive Power Ventures conducted wind turbine demonstrations and seminars. KiteShip staged a demonstration of a kite propulsion system designed to increase the fuel efficiency of cargo ships. Makani Power , a Google X company that develops airborne wind turbines, exhibited its prototype kiteboats.

Mayor Gavin Newsom endorsed the event with an official proclamation that declared Sunday of the festival Family Day in San Francisco.

KiteShip staged a demonstration of its 3,000-square-foot kite powering a 153-ton barge. The demonstration set the record for the largest commercial vessel ever towed by kite in US waters. The kite system provides cargo ships with auxiliary power to increase fuel efficiency and reduce fossil fuel consumption.

Troy Gunn and Chris Shultz piloted sport kites to perform dazzling stunts. The two are national and international champions who have performed and competed all over the world.

David Gomberg, ten-term president of the American Kitefliers Association, wowed the crowd with his giant show kites.

Rising from the depths of the ocean, an airborne SCUBA diver pursued by a drogue shark kite shares the air with a merman.

Fugu is a Bernoulli device, not a kite. Children delight in playing underneath and even inside it as it rhythmically bounces up and down in the breeze.

Renowned kite artist Jose Sainz launches his "New Zealand Star", the 2002 American Kiting Association Grand Champion.

At the Make-A-Kite Booth, kids folded simple kites to fly.

Kites offer a simple lesson in aerodynamics.

At the Howtoons booth, children constructed pinwheels, which demonstrate the basic physics of wind turbines. Some planted their pinwheels to create a colorful whirling garden.

The Howtoons booth promoted the launch of the book by MacArthur Fellow Saul Griffith. Part comic strip, part science experiment, Howtoons teaches kids the "Tools of Mass Construction", showing them how reimagine uses for common household items like soda bottles, duct tape, and mop buckets.

Nonchalantly flying kites to laze the day away.

Architects from NBBJ flight test the kite they designed in a workshop with inventor and MacArthur Fellow Saul Griffith.

David Sabilino showcased the little known sport of kite buggying. Kite buggies can reach maximum speeds of 70 mph.

Makani Power co-founders Don Montague and Saul Griffith exhibited their prototype kiteboats—mastless, multi-hull boats powered by large traction kites. Kiteboats can sail three times the wind speed and have clocked speeds of 35 knots.

"A kite is a poem, on a string, in the sky." —Ron Young, Founder, San Francisco Family Day Kite Festival