“This has been a labor of love for over a year to get this thing going again,” said John Graves, a member of the Cincinnati-based PIGS Aloft kite club. “Look at the people — look at the fun people are having.”
Kids could be found Saturday competing in parachute races, building their own kite or chasing after gigantic bubbles produced by a professional bubblist. Others simply showed up to see dozens of kites flying against a blue sky backdrop.
The occasion was expected to draw roughly 1,000 people, said Allison Wagner, a special events coordinator for the MetroParks of Butler County, which helped to organize the kite flying. The free event was hosted at the park from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday.
“We got a beautiful day — we got lucky,” Wagner said. “I think everybody is excited to get outside.”
She said the parks system plans to host the event again, and hopes it will grow.
Not only did the kite event attract hundreds of local families to the park, it attracted kite enthusiasts from as far as Wisconsin and New York. Graves said the Kites ‘N MPX event is the first in the region to launch the kite flying season.
Kevin Reynolds, a kite maker who made bubbles the size of a small car for children to play with Saturday, traveled nine hours from Upstate New York to fly his kites.
“Kite people are so much fun and we travel huge distances to have fun together,” Reynolds said.
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