In a kite festival – or in any kite-related event – there are two target groups, to use a foul word … the audience and the kiters.
Kiters are a weird bunch, and they get impressed by weird things. Like stitches.
People in the audience are much simpler – they see big stuff flying, they go Ooooooooooohhhh!
The debate between the kite making kiters (who make their own flying contraptions) and kite buying kiters (who buy “cheap chinese stuff”) has been going on since forever, and has no intentions to stop.
On one hand you have dedicated, even obsessed sewing machine masters who drool over beautiful zig-zag stitches, perfect hems, impossible curves. Kite makers kinda semi-rightfully look down to those who just buy their kites – because bought kites usually are cheap chinese stuff and usually are rip-offs of some legit kite designer (copyright and intellectual property issues have always been a hot topic amongst kiters).
On the other hand you have clumsy guys who can’t sew a button for the life of them, and are just happy to fly basically anything that flies, as long as it is big and colourful and pleases the crowd, and don’t care much about stolen ideas and child labour.
In our kite club we are lucky to have both types of kiters.
We have master Janez of Dr.Agon kites that is slowly but surely becoming one of the best kite makers in the world and his flying things are really really well made … and really really beautiful.
And we have those who just want to see the audience happy and are prowling chinese websites in their search of bigger and more colourful for more shock and awe. One click, one more flying monster.
Thus our intrepid president clicked one night on a aerial thing that has been a staple of kite festivals for years now: a rip-off of Andreas Fischbacher’s immortal design – a Manta ray.
The thing is immense, rivalling our Proteus anguinus maximus (made by Janez, of course); it’s complicated (we barely managed to sort out all the lines, we crashed it, and we didn’t completely unfurl its tail), heavy, bridle-intense, strong, intimidating and awe-inspiring.
8.5 meters wide, 21 meters long explosion of colour.
It’s beautiful.
And on its first flight it already proved to be a dedicated crowd getter: cars were turning off the main road to see the flying monster up close!
And its so big you can go inside!
The debate is not and will not be over. We are happy to see a well-made and innovatively designed kite. And we are happy to see kids – and adults! – losing their minds over a huge Manta in the sky.
For what’s worth, we need both.
1 thought on “A New Monster in Our Fleet”