Kites Up! - IKF Vrhnika 2021

Vrhnika is a cute and vibrant old town some 20 km southeast from Ljubljana, Slovenia. Every summer the local culture and tourism institution organise months-long festivities called Summer in Vrhnika, ranging from concerts and plays in the open theatre to movie nights, football games, and kids parties. Last year they invited us to show how we colour the sky with kites, and the success prompted them to repeat the invitation.

We called our kite colleagues from Zagreb - Croatian Kite Association Zmajoljupci so we could fill up the sky, and posted an open invitation to kiters online. We got lucky, as the heart of the Polish kite club Kuklok - Barbara, Marczin and the girls - were ending their vacation on the island of Cres and driving back home right through Vrhnika just in time for the festival! :-)

Photo courtesy of Marczyn, Kuklok kite club, Poland

So we had a true International Kite Festival! Kiters from Slovenia, Croatia, Poland and India flew kites at one of the most bizarre places ever to hold a kite festival: a disused, decrepit and soon-to-be-demolished outdoor swimming pool, covered in grafitti :-)

The kite ... pool :-) ... Photo courtesy of Tisa Ravnikar

Maša preparing the Trilobite for launch. Photo courtesy of Marczyn, Kuklok kite club, Poland.

A family from India showing how to fly a kite

Launching the MASAG β Rokkaku from the bottom pf the pool. Photo courtesy of Marczyn, Kuklok kite club, Poland.

This year the wind was more cooperative, and while the sun was scorching, we had many amenities provided by the Summer at Vrhnika crew ... the kites flew, the crowd was having fun, and as the sun was setting we felt we had made a perfect kite festival!

Kites are fun! Photo courtesy of Marczyn, Kuklok kite club, Poland.

Kiting is hard. Žuža & Žare of the Croatian Kite Assiciation, and Janez and Ivor are contemplating the wind.

Photo courtesy of Marczyn, Kuklok kite club, Poland.

Viktor bravely fights the giant wind monster

We'd like to extend our gratitude to Marija Zakrajšek Martinjak and Gašper Kos of the Ivan Cankar Institute for making the IKF Vrhnika 2021 possible, to Primož Hieng for his great article, to Luka and Nina for flying the rainbow delta when all other kites fell down, to kite masters Žuža and Žare of the Croatian Kite Association, to Kuklok's Barbara and Marczin and their coolest daughters, to Viktor who fought with the great trilobite and helped everything ran smoothly, to Maša who was in control of the swimming pool flying deck, showed how you launch a Rokkaku, explained little details of kite flying and provided medical assistance to a girl who cut her hand with a kite line, to Mila who partied with the Polish girls and ingeniously bridged the language gap using Google translate app on their phones - and of course to all friends and kite lovers who came and enjoyed a perfect kite flying afternoon.

See you all next year!

A gallery of impressions from the IKF Vrhnika 2021 by Marczyn, Kuklok kite club, Poland.