A ‘Fantabulous’ day

(Above) All eyes were to the sky Saturday as hundreds of kites were featured in the 2018 Color The Wind Kite Festival on Clear Lake. -Reporter photos by Chris Barragy.

[caption id="attachment_30812" align="alignleft" width="270"] Color The Wind organizer Larry Day works to ready a kite for flight as CBS Sunday Morning film crews capture the sights and sounds of the festival.[/caption]

The sky was filled with color and the streets were filled with thousands of people enjoying the annual Color the Wind Kite Festival Saturday on Clear Lake.

“The day was fantabulous!” said Larry and Kay Day, who in addition to organizing the festival, hosted a crew from the CBS Sunday Morning Show who filmed the event and interviewed many of those attending various activities associated with the weekend celebration.

The story is tentatively scheduled to air on CBS Sunday Morning on March 25.

The Days did not have an official count of kites featured on the ice this year, but estimated it was at least triple the number from prior years.

“Not only were there more kites in the air than ever before, but we had bigger and more unusual kites than ever before and a much, much bigger crowd of people who came to enjoy the event,” they said.

Cars were parked on the streets for at least six blocks around the North Lakeview Drive area where kite flyers were stationed.

“All the church and city parking lots were full, but even more surprising, the Surf parking lot was full.  People parked there and walked out on the lake at the Redstone Condos.  Restaurants report record business— one  even reported surpassing the Fourth of July and one reported that they ran out of food they were so busy,” said Kay.  People came to Clear Lake from as far away as St. Louis, Mo., Colorado, Texas and Ohio for the kite festival, she added.

  Lee Cowan, the CBS Sunday Morning producer, a cameraman and a sound technician were at the Day home from 8 a.m. to  about 3 p.m. Friday setting up equipment, interviewing and filming for the story.  Cowan and the producer, Mark Hudspeth, then joined the couple at the Arts Center for the kiters’ reception.  They

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stayed for several hours, greeting people and having their pictures taken with whoever asked and then they spent all day Saturday out on the ice filming the event and interviewing people.

  The best part of the whole thing, though, was watching so many people thoroughly enjoying the outdoors with smiles on their faces.

“I received a message from one person who said that watching the kites in the air gave her so much joy that she felt young again— like a kid!” said Kay.  “Larry and I never dreamed that the purchase of three little kites for our grandchildren 18 years ago would eventually lead to thousands of people coming to Clear Lake, Iowa to watch us and our friends entertain them with hundreds of kites.  We are truly blessed to be able to do this for our community and we thank all those who have so generously contributed time, treasure and talent to help grow the event.”

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