The first Uchinada World Kite Festival was held in 1988. It was a relatively modest affair called the Japan Sea Kite Festival. The town’s residents hit the beach and flew kites to celebrate Golden Week. What started as a small local event has grown to become an internationally known kite festival that attracts tourists from all over Japan and abroad. Although it was canceled several times due to tsunami concerns as well as out of solidarity for the victims of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, it remains one of the most popular and anticipated festivals in Japan.
The festival occurs annually on May 3 and 4 during the so-called Golden Week. It is a term applied to the period that contains a number of public holidays including Showa Day (April 29), Constitution Memorial Day (May 3), Greenery Day (May 4) and Children’s Day (May 5). It is the longest vacation period of the year for many Japanese workers that’s why it is perfect for holding various festivals.
The Uchinada Kite Festival features international delegations that come from different countries to display their kites and compete in several kite flying contests and challenges. During the festival the sky above Uchinada is full of kites of different shapes, sizes and colors. Some of the kites are truly enormous and seem more like a hot air balloon than a kite!
One of the highlights of the festival is the stunt kite competition. It features teams consisting of up to eight pilots who fly their kites within inches of each other and perform all kinds of formations and figures in the hair.
There also are affordable kites on sale for those attendees who want to try their hand at flying their own kite and/or participate in a kite flying workshop.
