[danielchtong]

At one time the annual (end Sept) Toronto Kite Festival were pretty well organized with substantial commercial sponsors. So successful that they had been able to fly in foreign and international proffesionals for the event. I heard that yr 2008 was the last one and unfortunately I was in the Far East . These were the images I took and posted in 2006.

The main problem of organizing an event of such scale is that so much was dependent on weather. It can be rained out. Even if it had fine weather , lack of wind could still be problematic as well. This was the best yr I took out of 6 years that I had attended. The event will not be held anymore for lack of sponsor


































Eager helpers to get the kite up in the air












Majority were Zenitar shots except one




Daniel

[k100d]

where do they hold this? interesting photos, maybe i do need WA

[Peter Zack]

Excellent shots Daniel. Some really interesting creations that don't look like they could fly. Sad to hear it's over and too bad the sponsorship is gone. Did these events get many people watching? Was it one day or many?

[Clicker]

where do they hold this? interesting photos, maybe i do need WA

usually Milliken Park SW corner Steeles and McCowan.

weekend event

Daniel ...

Toronto Kite Fliers Club Events

[danielchtong]

Excellent shots Daniel. Some really interesting creations that don't look like they could fly. Sad to hear it's over and too bad the sponsorship is gone. Did these events get many people watching? Was it one day or many?

Peter,

Clicker is right. If you google 'toronto kite festival' you can trace back a lot of images. I think 05 still had some big name sponsors. But the weather was lousy. The yr that I took (2006) was more succesful because of weather and wind despite attracting lesser number of big name sponsor and foreign pros. Trust me. Getting those huge kites up in the air had never been easy. You can wait for a whole day without one chance of getting those suckers up at all - sometimes really frustrating.

I went several years and usu came back empty handed. But I kept going as I knew what it could be capable of as the venue was only 15 minutes drive from my home.

With great weather and people could see them miles away, it got a lot of thrilled participants.













You only saw the kite body only. This was just the little tail of some huge kites ready to take off. I spoke to a couple of pros. They drove long hours to fly (or attemt to fly) those big kites (when folded they needed to be transported in larger vehicles as you can see at lower left).









It was quite rewarding when they were up









Sadly. It is all over. The attendence of this year ( late Sept) was the worst with hardly any sponsors and promotion. I got the news from the organizer: no more next yr









This fellow took some documentary photos


http://etherwork.net/llizard/festival/kitesgalore.htmlDaniel

[LeoTaylor]

It looks a little like Connecticut's Hammonasset Kite Festival, about 9 hours Southeast of Toronto. My wife and I attend most every year and have been lucky with the weather. This is one of my shots of two dozen kites being flown by two operators. Forgive me for posting a non-Pentax image.

[danielchtong]

Leo

Your composition is perfect. You even had that in symmetry. Great work.
I think I had attended 5 yrs (usu Sat & Sun). Out of that only one time say around 30 minutes all the biggies were up in the air as I have shown.

Daniel

[8540tomg]

Great stuff Daniel. Too bad it's over. It must have been a fun day.

Tom G

[Clicker]

...eerrrr, i posted the link to let you know there are other events that you can always shoot, it is a loss the one at Milliken but i had a feeling it was poorly organized and that's why it got cut along with low sponsorship.

[98wongjf]

I missed this event. I remember driving by the park every year and seeing tonnes of kites flying over. It was wonderful. Too bad it's not happening again...

[MRRiley]

Cant help asking.... WHY do they need corporate sponsors? What is there to stop a hundred or a thousand kite flyers from converging on the park some favorable weekend. This might make it a better event anyway. I assume the sponsors gave prizes but a simple "kite flying day" might be just as much if not more fun.

[danielchtong]

Cant help asking.... WHY do they need corporate sponsors? What is there to stop a hundred or a thousand kite flyers from converging on the park some favorable weekend. This might make it a better event anyway. I assume the sponsors gave prizes but a simple "kite flying day" might be just as much if not more fun.

At one time when Air Canada was the sponsor they were paying at least partially for flight of some pros from Japan and N Europe.

The scale of the events demands a bit of organization and resource as you can see

Daniel

[LeoTaylor]

Leo

Your composition is perfect. You even had that in symmetry. Great work.
...
Daniel

Thank You. I'm sure it would have looked better if I used my Pentax.

I have several shots of a large Kitty, Bear, etc. but I thought the pair of 12 stacked stunt kites were interesting too. My wife bought a stunt kite, we have never got it to fly. I gave her her first kite, a classic diamond shape, it never fails to fly.

MRRiley - Here in the Constitution State the ConnectiKITERS do have events where they descend on a park and fly kites without sponsors. My wife and I have only attended the Hammonasset Kite Festival,. Maybe this year we might go to a smaller gathering. Maybe someone there could help us get the stunt kite to stay up???