What is it about kites that encourages innovation? Or perhaps, what is it about innovative and creative people that draws them to kites?

Over a thousand years ago, according to the legend, a Cambodian trickster hero invented the first musical kite while imprisoned in China. Having run a popular noodle stand outside the palace walls in Beijing for several years, Thun Chhey had gained a reputation for his audacious sense of humor and startling feats of intelligence.

As everywhere worldwide, so too in Scandinavia were the upper air strata being researched at the beginning of the twentieth century with the aid of kites. The goal of this research was to explore the more exact nature of these strata and to obtain knowledge of weather and climate.

Kite aerial photography (KAP) has allowed me to widen my perception of the earth and has provided me a new approach to document natural resources and phenomena in a nonintrusive manner.

Some of kite flying’s most enduring characters were invited to San Vito, Sicily for a first-time festival this May. Headlined by Peter Lynn, Ray Bethell, George Peters, Martin Lester, Robert Trepanier, Claudio Capelli, and Ramlal Tien, the invited kite fliers brought large and striking festival kites sure to attract large crowds. Additionally a group of first-rate kite artists attended and flew their newest creations. In a small flying arena, highlighted by Capelli’s informed commentary, the kites were spotlighted in a show that lasted 9 days.

Scott Skinner and I launched the Drachen Foundation in 1994, incorporated as a private educational nonprofit. This began an incredible journey, one which neither of us had any direct experience in or idea of what would be the outcome. What did it actually mean to be a kite foundation?

Dedicated to commemorating deceased ancestors who are perceived as still active in daily life, the Day of the Dead or All Saints Day is celebrated across Latin America on November 1st . For centuries , rura l communities throughout the highlands of Guatemala have celebrated with festivals featuring kites that carry messages to ancestors. The largest of these kite festivals occur in two communities near Guatemala City, Santiago Sacatepequez and Sumpango.

Long ago in 1962, David Kung published a charming, limited edition book, Japanese Kites: A Vanishing Art, which drew attention to the exquisite work of elderly Japanese kite makers, some of whom had embarked upon their kite-making careers at the turn of the 19th into the 20th centuries. Scott Skinner first introduced me to this book. Kung expressed concern that the traditional craft of the Japanese kite maker might eventually die out with its then-aging practitioners.

Another year has slipped away and memories of Y2K have become distant as the first decade of the 21st Century has almost passed. As we mark this moment, I want to take a look back at how we in the kite world have progressed to this exciting time: kite surfing a mainstream sport, resurgence of kite cultures throughout Southeast Asia, talk of “mega-kite-shows,” and real possibilities of significant kite power on land and water.

There is no doubt that influential Mexican artist Francisco Toledo is taken with kites! After last fall’s successful Toledo-inspired kite exhibit in Oaxaca, Mexico, for which the Drachen Foundation contributed over 50 art kites created by international kite makers, Toledo exerted his influence to exhibit the kites in Puebla, Mexico, a town two hours south of Mexico City.