Festivals of 2024: Sand Castles, Kites, Bubbles and Hot Air Balloons
M loves a good festival, and there are plenty of kid friendly festivals in Cleveland. This year so far we've hit four festivals of varying entertainment value. Most of these festivals were at Edgewater Park, which apparently is ground zero for Cleveland festival hosting.
[1] The Sand Castle festival was the first and only disappointing festival of the group. The implication was that professional sand castle artists were going to be building sand sculptures on Edgewater Beach. The reality was that the sculptures were being built by employees from local corporations as a contest. You'll be unsurprised to learn that most were not very good. We took a quick swing through and then departed. This was August 3.
[2] The next weekend (August 11) was the Cleveland International Kite Festival. They also meet at Edgewater, and in years past I've seen the kites flying high as I drove past on the shoreway. This year we stopped. Birdie really enjoyed watching all the various kites flying, especially the big ones like the giant octopus. I prefer the classic box kite myself.
After we watched kites for a while, we decided not to risk hitting other kites and went over to Windy Park (how appropriate) and flew Birdie's cheapo Little Mermaid kite for a while.
[3] A month later, on September 7, we went to the first ever Cleveland Bubble Fest. The organizer brought in people who do bubbles professionally from all the surrounding states, and it was actually pretty fantastic. While there were many variations in the number and size of bubbles being blown, at the end of the day it was a lot of people blowing a lot of bubbles at the same time. A stiff wind off the lake took those bubbles high and far. There were also plenty of extra sets of bubble wands for guests to use, so Birdie (and M and I) made a lot of bubbles. This was very enjoyable and was my favorite festival of the year.
[4] The fourth and thus far final festival of 2024 was in Ravenna on a very hot and sticky September 22. The Ravenna Balloon A-Fair promised a lot of hot air balloons. First though, Birdie jumped in about a gazillion bounce houses. Then, after much waiting, the balloon lift off was cancelled due to incoming inclement weather. Instead, they inflated the balloons on the field briefly and let people wander around them before they deflated everything. Well, everything but one balloon that apparently missed the memo about the storm and took off anyway. My personal favorite was the giant bald eagle balloon, which was not only the largest balloon but was shaped like an eagle instead of the more typical round shape.
Both the Balloon A-Fair and the Kite Festival were on their 45th iteration. Apparently unpowered flight had a moment 45 years ago.
[1] The Sand Castle festival was the first and only disappointing festival of the group. The implication was that professional sand castle artists were going to be building sand sculptures on Edgewater Beach. The reality was that the sculptures were being built by employees from local corporations as a contest. You'll be unsurprised to learn that most were not very good. We took a quick swing through and then departed. This was August 3.
[2] The next weekend (August 11) was the Cleveland International Kite Festival. They also meet at Edgewater, and in years past I've seen the kites flying high as I drove past on the shoreway. This year we stopped. Birdie really enjoyed watching all the various kites flying, especially the big ones like the giant octopus. I prefer the classic box kite myself.
After we watched kites for a while, we decided not to risk hitting other kites and went over to Windy Park (how appropriate) and flew Birdie's cheapo Little Mermaid kite for a while.
[3] A month later, on September 7, we went to the first ever Cleveland Bubble Fest. The organizer brought in people who do bubbles professionally from all the surrounding states, and it was actually pretty fantastic. While there were many variations in the number and size of bubbles being blown, at the end of the day it was a lot of people blowing a lot of bubbles at the same time. A stiff wind off the lake took those bubbles high and far. There were also plenty of extra sets of bubble wands for guests to use, so Birdie (and M and I) made a lot of bubbles. This was very enjoyable and was my favorite festival of the year.
[4] The fourth and thus far final festival of 2024 was in Ravenna on a very hot and sticky September 22. The Ravenna Balloon A-Fair promised a lot of hot air balloons. First though, Birdie jumped in about a gazillion bounce houses. Then, after much waiting, the balloon lift off was cancelled due to incoming inclement weather. Instead, they inflated the balloons on the field briefly and let people wander around them before they deflated everything. Well, everything but one balloon that apparently missed the memo about the storm and took off anyway. My personal favorite was the giant bald eagle balloon, which was not only the largest balloon but was shaped like an eagle instead of the more typical round shape.
Both the Balloon A-Fair and the Kite Festival were on their 45th iteration. Apparently unpowered flight had a moment 45 years ago.