“Go fly a kite” is a term that we normally use in everyday parlance. But come to Gujarat in the month of January and you would literally be flying a kite, for this is the time kites are flown here in celebration of the International Kite Festival in Ahmedabad. This year too in the year 2022, a lot of festive atmosphere would set in, come the time of Makar Sankranti , the Indian festival signifying the Uttarayan or the change of course of the Sun.
Gujarat’s International Kite Festival coincides with the Makar Sankranti celebrations and is one day when you would see a colourful sky studded with a lot of kites of different size, shape and colours. So see them darting, fluttering, victoriously in the air and soaring like our dreams high up in the air. The Gujarat Tourism Development Corporation has a local stadium as the venue for the International Kite Festival and you can see all the kite enthusiasts from across the world to showcase their talents. There is a kite market also that is found along the place and get to see some of the best cultural performances here in this land of the kites. Also at night get ready for the grand spectacle of seeing illuminated kites called tukals in the air.
Uttarayan is the time the International Kite Festival is celebrated. This is a phenomenon when the winter starts turning into the summer season and the bright sunny day with breeze is the right atmosphere to fly kites. So this day, you would find all of the city inhabitants on terrace tops enjoying the festive ambience.
Also Read: Popular Fair Festivals Celebrated in Gujarat
Special kite makers are employed to make the best kind of kites with the springy frames made of bamboo and also the right kind of kite paper that is stretched to the right tension. Then the kites are joined to the firkin or spool of manja which are special kite strings that are coated with a mixture of glue and glass to be sharp enough to cut the other kites. However, these days, the glass and glue mixture is being avoided in the making of kites. Patang bazaar is one area which gives you the best variety of kites in Ahmedabad.
So come early morning and all of Gujarat would get up early and start flying kites in the predawn wind. Delicacies like Surati Jamun, Undhiyu, and Laddoos are made and distributed. Social gatherings and get together are common during this time.
The International Kite Festival has been held here in Ahmedabad since the year 1989 and is an official announcement of the arrival of Uttarayan. Of late, master kite makers from across the world and coming here and demonstrating this unique art and enthralling the crowds. Kite makers from Malaysia, Indonesia, Layang Layang have and USA come here and make giant banner kites, Japanese Rokkaku fighting kites, flying dragons from China, Italian Sculptural kites, and many other varieties. Rasulbhai Rahimbhai of Ahmedabad is a famous kite maker who makes around 500 kites on a single string and is a major attraction here in the festival.
Find the best excitement here in the International Kite Festival on the banks of the River Sabarmati on the riverfront project between the Nehru Bridge and the Gandhi Bridge. The event would begin on January 9 and would end on January 12. More than 150 kite-fliers have been invited from across the world for the fest and the kites are going to show up in different sizes and shapes and enthrall the spectators.
The event would also showcase the beauty of the White Rann of Kutch and Mandvi through this event and would encourage the fliers to go to Kachchh and organize a kite festival here too. In 2022, the plan is to have other activities also as a part of the festival. So expect some great light and sound shoe, some training on how to make a kite and various related workshops amongst many other programmes.
Besides, the festival would also have a separate platform to exhibit the significance of kites to everyone and to showcase the lovely history behind it to all who come here to enjoy the scene and the ambience here. People would be thus introduced to the concept of kite flying and kite makers are going to be present to educate the people as to how kites are made.
The kite fliers would thus go to White Rann of Kutch and Mandvi after the festival at Ahmedabad is over. Thus the Kutch region would be given a lot of promotion as an Indian tourist destination and the kite festival here would be part of the Rann Utsav and will be one of the reasons tourists would head this way during this season.
Again there is a special way that the state of Gujarat celebrates the kite festival. So the foreign fliers would be taken to Pol and they could get a complete know how about this and more about the January 14th Kite festival that is so famous across Gujarat in general and in Ahmedabad in particular.
So get set and zoom with windsocs, and box kites, spinsocs and hand painted kites this Makar Sankranti in Ahmedabad.
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