Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/144909
Night Music Festival. This is definitely the right place for a kite festival. It's windy here. All the time. Perfect conditions for flying a kite. It's no accident that SaskPower's 30-square-kilometre Centennial Wind Power Facility – the second biggest in Canada – is located nearby. This is a big event on the Swift Current calendar, and downtown shops and businesses have jumped into the spirit of the weekend. Almost every store window sports some sort of kite display. Some have simple constructionpaper kites taped to the inside of the glass. Many, such as the Salvation Army thrift shop, have gone all out, creating elaborate exhibits with colourful fabric kites suspended as if they were being held aloft in the wind. "Everyone gets behind the kite festival," says Garry Koebel, owner of Sputtergotch ("that's how my kids pronounced 'butterscotch' when they were younger") Toy Company. "All the big ones are sold," he says, gesturing toward his kites. He has plenty of smaller kites left, all of them a lot more colourful and durable than the simple diamond kites I used to glue together from balsawood and tissue paper when I was a kid. I don't need a kite, though. I already have one – a compact parafoil purchased years ago for a long bicycle tour through southern Saskatchewan. With no awkward, bulky spars, parafoils rely on the wind to give them shape; whenever strong headwinds threatened to demoralize our group of cyclists, we simply unfurled our kites. Finding my way to the festival site outside of town is a breeze. Bright red paper kites strung up along the city's major thor- Kites soar high above the crowds at the Windscape Kite Festival; (opposite) celebrity flier Bud Taylor, from Airdrie, Alberta. oughfares lead the way to Southwest Hill. A mile or more from the site, you can't miss the sky filled with kites swaying back and forth. I'm struck by the immensity of some of the single-line kites. The scuba diver is easily nine to 12 metres long. No wonder from afar the kites appeared to sway so languidly in the stiff west wind. I start walking alongside the fields reserved for "celebrity" fliers, namely the sport's true professionals and enthusiasts who've come here from as far away as Europe. Past the kinetic wind sculpture garden and the Art Gallery of Swift Current windsock display, and beyond the main stage, Windscape WESTWORLD p14-19_Getaways_OutAbout.indd 15 >> S U M M E R 2 0 1 2 15 4/13/12 11:49:47 AM