"LUCKY" 13th Annual
Skydance Sakakawea
Kite Festival 2005
It is a challenge preparing
for a festival that will be celebrating its 13th year. My grandmother was a
fairly superstitious person and never had a car serviced on the 13th, never did
any banking on the 13th, and never went shopping on the 13th. I
debated publishing my festival as 12b and then moving on to 14 in 2006 but threw
caution to the wind (and salt over my shoulder) and held the 13th Annual
Skydance Sakakawea Kite Festival on May 28-30, 2005. And I'm happy to report, it
truly was the best Skydance to date. Kites flew all three days and other than
temperatures that were a little cool, everyone had a fantastic time and great
winds for flying.
Skydance
invited guests Mike Shaw, Don Murphy, Betty Suhr, Mike Gee, and Chris Dodson
arrived in Garrison Friday night and enjoyed a good evening of giggles and
storytelling. Saturday dawned cool and gray but dry.
Big kites were anchored around the perimeter of the public flying field creating
a safe and open flying space for single-line art kites and the sled kids that
the kids would be making later in the afternoon. Reports began filtering in that
the big kites were visible from the town of Garrison three miles away, from US
Highway 83, and from the Garrison Dam on the other side of the lake. (Gosh I
love it when a plan comes together.) A TV news reporter from Minot showed up to
do film for News at Six and was able to get great pictures of the launch of Don
Murphy's Trilobyte.
One of the unique things
about Skydance is that the public comes to fly kite not just watch. And thanks
to kite sales person Rena Rustad, they bought
kites and added lots of color to the Ft. Stevenson State Park sky. Over
100 sled kites were made during the kid's kitemaking event. Rollie Metz provided
rides with his tandem buggy and said he put 16 miles on his buggy during the
afternoon. 250 people registered for the free drawing and car count indicators
suggested an extra 500 vehicles entered the state park for the day.
More of the same was enjoyed
on Sunday. Unfortunately, the trilobyte found a tree
on Sunday and was retired for the rest of the event. (Latest update is that the
trilobyte has been repair and is again ready for flight.) (Whew!)
For
the first time in the history of the kite festival, all three days were flyable
and Monday ended up being the
warmest clearest day of the weekend. A red/white/blue fly was done Monday in
honor of all Service men and women past and present. Another treat of the day
Monday was Rollie Metz flying his hand painted segmented Chinese dragon kite. It
was only the third time I had been able to see one of those kites fly and it was
an honor for Rollie to fly it at Skydance.
So the 13th Annual Skydance Sakakawea Kite Festival is in the history books. Great wind, great skies, great kites, great crowds and especially, GREAT FRIENDS. See you over Memorial Day in 2006 for Skydance #14. Hmmm...14 is my lucky number...wow, it should be fantastic.
Thanks goes out to Ft. Stevenson State Park Manager Dick Messerly for providing such a tremendous home for the kite festival. A special thank you must be given for the financial support given by the CANDISC (Cycling Around North Dakota in Sakakawea Country) organization and the Garrison Chamber of Commerce. Thanks also must be given to the general public who bought raffle tickets for the three kites I made to help cover expenses. Skydance #13 was close to a break even event and in the world of kiting that is a huge accomplishment. Thanks especially to those guests who paid their own way to add such color to my Skydance sky. Your generosity and friendship is such a valued gift.
skydance@bis.midco.net