MAY 14, 2016
All Ages Welcome!
Yujin Gakuen Elementary School
250 Silver Lane, Eugene, OR
Noon – 4:00 pm – Free Admission
Eugene, OR — Colorful kites will take to the skies for the annual Asian Kite Festival planned for Saturday, May 14 from noon until 4:00 p.m. at the Yujin Gakuen Japanese Immersion School located at 250 Silver Lane, Eugene. The event is free and open to all ages to participate.
Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy officially opens the event, followed by an afternoon of kite-flying competitions, kite-making classes, taiko drumming, Chinese lion dancers, performances by the Yujin Gakuen singers, Iron Mango Orchestra (ukulele); and treats such as Hawaiian shaved ice, and more.
Festival visitors who arrive without a kite, and wish to enter the kite flying competitions, can make their own Asian fighter kite for $3, which covers the cost of materials. The kite competition will award prizes to participants in several categories, including highest-flying, lowest flying, most artistic, most original, and crazy looking.
“All ages are welcome to make an Asian fighter kite in the class. The design is based on a lightweight Asian fighter kite designed to fly in winds as low as one mile per hour,” says Ken Nagao, a founder of the Asian Kite Festival and kite enthusiast. Nagao will have a number of his Asian kites on display, most of which he made himself, including his latest creation, a 5’ x 11’ kite depicting the castle built by the Nagao Clan on Kasugayama (Spring Day Mountain) in Joetsu, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. “It was destroyed when the Meiji took over but the moat is still intact – now called Nagao Castle Park,” Nagao said.
The Asian Kite is organized by the Eugene/Springfield Asian Council, Yujin Gakuen PTO, Japanese American Association of Lane County, and the University of Oregon Japanese Student Organization. For more information, contact Ardyn Wolfe, event chair at (541) 729-4096
