Smithsonian Kite Festival

I attended the Cherry Blossom Kite Festival by the Washington Monument /​National Mall with my fiancé and a friend this past Saturday and absolutely loved it! Even though it was a very cold day (in the 30s) and windy, the experience was a very fun one. We saw hundreds of very unique kites being flown around with a lovely backdrop of the Washington Monument. We only went for an hour but also witnessed the rokkaku kite competition, which was very exciting and intense!
What I love about the festival is that there were two different fields /​options — one for families to fly their own kites and another for the public to view kite competitions and kite — making, etc.
I have been wanting to visit the kite festival (which typically occurs in late March) for several years now and am so glad I finally got a chance to do so this past weekend!

The sight of so many kites flying on the Mall from the Monument to the Capitol is one of the best sights in DC during the beginning of spring and the start of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I wish more people flew kites everyday than just on a specific day dedicated to flying them.
It is a tourist event, so the Mall is packed during Kite Festival. Be careful when you’re walking; there are kids and adults running around, you can potentially run into kite string, all that jazz. If you’re flying a kite, be careful not to run into people or let your kite hit someone.
Since it’ll be a crowded event and during the Cherry Blossom Festival, you can be sure that the Smithsonian metro stop (closest metro stop to the Kite Festival) will be crowded with people too. If you can, take the metro to L’Enfant Plaza and walk towards the Mall. It’ll be much less crowded. Similarly, walk to the L’Enfant Plaza metro station when you want to leave.

Certainly pretty from faraway but as a tourist it’s crowded. It was warm this day in DC and there were way too many people, police officers, ambulances and kids. I think from faraway it’s great. Saw a couple cool kites. I think professional kite fliers. Yes, they wanted to show off those groovy kites.

One of my favorite events in DC! This year was more crowded than last year due to the warm weather and I had a great time hanging out on the lawn with friends. In fact, I was there for 6 hours.
Dress for warmth and beware of children and adults running at «fool’s» speed backwards trying to fly their kites. I was hit in the head by 2 kites, and my friend got trampled on by someone running backwards. So the lesson is no open-​toed shoes and sunglasses for eye protection.
There is an area that is fenced off just North of the Monument for professional performances while the rest of the lawn is open to all. I saw them selling commemorative kites but I am not sure how well they fly. Also, we made the mistake of buying a fancy dragon kite from Costco that requires at least 7 mph winds to fly so we had lots of compliments and request to take photos, but our Dragon was land-​bound (yes I will be returning and yes I’ve had it for a year– whats your point?). I recommend buying light kites that can fly at 5 mph winds.

This event will certainly bring out the kid in you no matter how old you are (unless your a senior citizen with a medical condition which causes you to be a grumpy old fart).
Seriously just seeing all the kites in the sky is worth all the hassle. And even when you are caught in traffic looking for parking, it’s still fun because all you have to do is look up in the sky, so there’s no mad rush to get anywhere.
Can’t wait for next year!!!

always fun, even when it’s not a very windy day, there are hundreds of real pros out who get all kinds of crazy kites up in the air.
if youre going to bring your kids, don’t skimp on your own kite because the chintzier the kite, the harder it will be to get up in the air.
and regardless of how old you are, definitely do bring a kite and definitely do stick around to watch the fighting kite competitions. yes, it’s silly, and yes, that’s what makes it all so great.

best memory of 2009. 200k or more people from all over the world coming together, it consides with the best time to see the cherry blossom

A beautiful annual event for kids of all ages. A must-​see!

The kite festival is awesome. The more wind the better. Make sure to watch one of the dueling competitions, they are quite amazing.

Fun event down by the Washington Monument around early April. As
Armenoush described in detail, a lot of kites & little kids running around.
Must admit was fewer kites than I expected, but I think thats b/​c I had unreasonable expectations. I expected a sea of kites. There were a lot of kites but they were fairly spread out throughout the sky. Its a fun event to check out for an hour or so if you are free. Especially if you have kids, they will love it.

I am creating a review for this so people next year can read about it and go!
This is an annual event that usually happens in March or April when the weather turns nice. I never had the luck to see it in previous years but I’m so glad I went down to the Mall today! It lasted for about 5 hours but I was there for only about an hour. It was really perfect kite-​flying weather, mostly sunny, 45 degrees, moderate wind.
I walked up to the Washington Monument and suddenly saw all the kites. There must have been about three hundred of them. Well, math is my weak subject, but there were definitely a lot of kites up there. Small kites, big kites, parachute kites, animal kites, homemade kites, professional kites… have I said «kites» enough? They had stations where you could make your own kites and other stations with art displays about the kite-​making process. They also had contests in roped-​off areas but they were taking a break when I walked by that area so I didn’t see any kite-​fighting.
Two things made this a worthwhile event for me. One was the colors. The kites had all kinds of designs and colors, red, blue, green, yellow, white, stripes, polka dots, Elmos, and so on. The other was the little kids. There were hundreds of happy babies and toddlers and little kids. It was really cute.
Thank you Miriam for sharing this wonderful event!