Kites colour Moscow sky

A kite festival “Colourful Sky” held at Moscow’s Kolomenskoye Park has gathered a number of amateurs, professionals and beginners in the art of kite flying.

First invented in China about 3,000 years ago, kite flying only became popular in Europe in the 18th century, and remains a popular pastime both among children and adults.

The festival has been organised annually for the past five years and is aimed to get more and more people interested in kites.

Everyone has the chance to display a handmade kite, to demonstrate their skills in kite flying or to try and catch the wind for the first time.

Experienced festival participants have more complicated tasks than just to launch a kite into the sky.

“We held a competition with various nominations. Those who fly stunt kites should perform some special figures in the air, while those who have made big three-dimensional kites should fly them as long and high as possible. And of course we will mark the most beautiful kite,” says Aleksey Egorov, head of kite flyers' club

Designed with many different shapes, sizes and colours dozens of kites were flown at the festival.

Some participants found pleasures in kite flying other than just watching the kite roam in the sky.

“I'm just enjoying spending my time in fresh air. Some people prefer running, others cycling, and I like flying a kite, which I think is also sports activity,” says Dmitry, one of the festival’s participants.

Others like Nikita and Maksim wish to apply their design skills in practice.

“Actually we visit club studies where we construct flying models of different airplanes. But flying kites is also great fun,” explain the boys.