2008 Calendar

LOCATIONS OF FLIES

VENUE CHANGE!

The flying field for the entire Festival will be the church park adjacent to the Portneuf Library at 510 Stuart, who hosts kitemaking at 2 pm (register at the library or call 208.241.3215). After the workshop we'll parade to the park. If you already have a kite please join us and fly!

Kitemaking With the Veterans - October 3, 7 pm, Memorial Building, 300 S. Johnson

Come one, come all to make a kite with vets. Celebrate your favorite vets or memorialize a war, then fly them at the Festival in a special fly.

Flying field schedule: This will include the veterans' and cancer memorial flies, the teddy bear parachute jump, the fighter kite battle and other demonstrations, the 100 kite train flying over the Festival, and some prize contests for kids and kids at heart. Because weather will be the biggest factor, we'll have several days to put on events rather than the one shot we had last year (when it snowed two inches).

The schedule will be loose so we can hold flying events as wind and weather allow. This gives us more opportunities to offer all events, so come out and be surprised and amazed!

PLAN B (FOR BAD BREAK IN WEATHER CONDITIONS)

If weather delays flying at the Festival, listen or watch for announcements posted at the main tent.  We can move indoors to the Portneuf Library and watch a video - the amazing stunt kiter Ray Bethell, or the moving and thought-provoking movie The Kite Runner. 

LODGING OPTIONS
Host Hotels

We now have 3 host hotels for ISKF 2008 in Pocatello ID Oct 2-5.

Rodeway Inn, formerly Econo Lodge and also a 2007 host hotel, 835 S Fifth off Exit 67, 208 233.0451, 800 377 0451, www.econolodge.com/hotel/id029, is returning to host at 2007's prices! That's $49 single, $55 double, continental breakfast, free DSL, pets welcome.

New to our host list is Cottontree Inn, 1415 Bench RD, Pocatello CR RD exit 71, 208 237 7650. Offers $79 1-2 beds with full breakfast.
Ameritel of Pocatello offers special rates for the Festival: one king or 2 queen beds for $89.75. Includes full buffet breakfast. Pool, hot tub and gym are some of the amenities, and Ameritel also has suites at other rates. 1440 Bench Road, 208 234 7500.


Camper Alert!

If you wish to camp at the Idaho Kite Festival, it will be very inexpensive. The Bannock County Fairgrounds has RV sites for $10/day and tent sites for $5 day. Ph. 208.237.1340. The fairgrounds are located off Exit 71 Pocatello Creek exit.

A college rodeo and youth soccer events will be held at the Fairgrounds that weekend - but I hope you'll spend most of your time at the Festival events!

Community Environmental Fair

On April 26 we made about 200 kites from recycled materials at the Community Environmental Fair. We worked nearly an hour past closing time but could not accommodate latecomers as the entire Fair had closed down and packed up. So today, June 5, at Portneuf Library we had a workshop I call Old News - New Kite, making a newspaper kite with about 25 kids and parents. We'll continue to hold workshops to make and give away kites all over the state as fast as we can schedule them (not quite as easy as it sounds because I have a full-time job in the real world, but it works pretty well). Look for us at your local library or museum - and ask them to invite us if we aren't on the schedule! We want every child in Idaho and most of the grown-ups to have a kite, and fly it at Idaho Kite Festival every year!

New kitemaking workshops and other schedule additions!

Former national fighter kite champion Jay Maas of Stanley and his team including Roy Hanson of Burley will demonstrate fighter kite battles Thursday and Friday afternoon, at 5 pm at the Festival!  Thursday will be at the church park adjacent to Portneuf Library (Hawthorne at Stuart in Chubbuck).  Friday's events will be at Tyhee School in Chubbuck (west off Yellowstone at Tyhee RD, or east off Hawthorne - easy to spot among the wheat fields!).

Extra special:  In addition, they will instruct a workshop to make the exotic, exciting fighter kite making at Portneuf Library, across from the Thursday flying field at the church park adjacent to the library, at 6 pm Thursday Oct 2.  This is a HIGH-SCHOOL/adult workshop, the only one on the schedule limited to young and not so young adults!  If you have ever seen a fighter kite in action and wondered how the heck, now's the time to create a darting, flitting little fighter of your own. Learning to fly this kite is exhilarating, so plan to spend time with Roy Saturday when he demonstrates this skill and gives tips on keeping it in the air, maneuvering, and fighting with other kites. The guys promise to give lessons so you can actually learn to fly, control, maneuver and yes, maybe even battle with them - at the Festival on Friday and Saturday.  This might be the start of local teams and competitions, and a battle or two at future Festivals!

The complete 100+ kite train will be flown at IKF 2008 every opportunity the wind gives us. Come out and see the amazing sight of this many kites flying on one line! Dean Turnblom of Sunrise Kites in Idaho Falls and I have assembled this one. You can help make the 2009 kite train - just let us know you are willing and we'll show you how!

STILL TO COME: Yet to be scheduled are kitemaking workshops in the Boise and Ontario area, so stay tuned for these! If you'd like to suggest a public workshop in your area, feel free to contact The Sky's The Limit! community volunteers. We work on the Festival all year long by holding kitemaking workshops around Idaho!