What to Know

  • Clockshop’s Kite Festival
  • LA State Historic Park
  • Saturday, May 9 from 2 to 6 p.m.
  • Free
  • RSVP at the festival site and register for the Handcrafted Kite Competition, too
  • Kite-making workshops, kite contests, music, and dancing are on the schedule
  • “Take a Breath” is the 2026 theme; think of it as “a celebration of the wind that lifts our kites, the open sky above this park, and the air that connects us all.”

Springtime could be considered, at least in the poetically fanciful sense, to be the time of year when nature breathes a little. That breath is the breeze, the soft sorts of sweet winds that flutter petals and gently pass through blossoming tree branches.

It makes beautiful sense that a large springtime kite event would adopt this breathy spirit as a theme, focusing on the chance to pause, fly a kite, and “Take a Breath,” which is just the spring-fun opportunity many of us are searching for.

Breezes, breath-taking, and beauty will combine at Los Angeles State Historic Park May 9 when Clockshop’s Kite Festival, an annual pay-nothing celebration, takes flight from 2 to 6 o’clock.

It’s free to join but be sure to RSVP and let organizers know you’ll be there.

While sending your kite up, up, and up even further at the scenic space, which boasts a wonderful and dramatic backdrop of Downtown Los Angeles, is a lovely draw, so are the workshops devoted to artmaking and kite-creation.

There are kite-focused showdowns, too, with handmade kites competing for “Best in Show” (so make yours colorful, weird, and/or eye-catching).

A “new inflatable sculpture” from artists Christine Sun Kim and Thomas Mader will be part of the uplifting whimsy of the afternoon — “communication and language” are the inspirations — artist Francisco Ramos will present a “Guatemalan barrilete-style commission reflecting on the meditative quality of our park spaces.”

Music, the chance to burnish your cumbia techniques, and a playful spirit will rule.

Clockshop, an art and culture nonprofit, has presented this effervescent event for some time now, all to bring the community together in a pretty space, on a pretty spring day, for creativity, joy, and, yes, a little breath-taking beauty.

“Take a Breath” now and sign up to join the Handcrafted Kite Competition at this site.