Zilker Park Kite Festival

The Mission: Fly a Kite, Help a Child

The festival is presented each year by the Exchange Club of Austin, an all-volunteer 501(c)3 organization dedicated to the prevention of child abuse. All proceeds benefit local non-profit organizations that serve children and families. The 2010 festival benefited the Center for Child Protection, Safeplace, Theater Action Project, Communities in Schools, Family Eldercare, the Dept. of Family and Protective Services, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and Boy Scout Troop 10.

Exchange is a group of men and women working to make America a better place to live through one national project, the Prevention of Child Abuse, and other community service projects. Since 1924, the Exchange Club of Austin has worked to improve our community, help the disadvantaged and encourage good citizenship. Exchange helps members to develop leadership, networking, and organizational skills that contribute to success in business, family and personal endeavors. Continue Reading →

Slideshow for 2012!

Post-festival notes

If you lost anything at the festival, there is a box of lost-and-found. Anyone who’s already contacted us via the site has been forwarded to the organizers in charge of that box, and hopefully we’ll restore your items to you. In cases where the item’s not in that box, if you have a general idea of where you might’ve lost the item (ie around the port-a-potties), your information has been forwarded to whomever was in charge of that area. Again, hopefully we’ll get everyone’s lost items back to them safely.

ETA: it might also help to contact Parks & Rec, because they also have a lost-and-found separate from the festival organizers. (It really depends on the person who found your item, and where they might’ve turned it in — whether to the festival, or to one of the park police.) While we’re forwarding any reports of items not in our lost-and-found box to Parks & Rec as well, it might be quicker if you also contact them directly.

Also, still working on the slideshow of this year’s volunteers and attendees, and hope to have that up as soon as possible. If you have any videos or photographs you took that you’d like displayed on the website, we’d love to have them! Just comment on this post and we’ll get in touch with you. Thanks!

If you’re not here, why not?

It’s not quite 2pm as this is posted, and the festival still has three more hours! It’s a gorgeous day, with winds just right for kite-flying — strong enough to get the kites up there, but not so strong it’ll blow you off your feet, too. Be aware, reports are coming in that the shuttle lines are quite long, but as the early-morning picnickers start to clear out, you may have more luck finding a space in one of the nearby parking lots. That said, it’s slow but steady going on Mopac coming south across the bridge, thanks to all the festival traffic, so be ready to take your time and enjoy the beautiful day along the way.

A few other notes: if you don’t have a kite, HEB has a kite-making tent, and if anything happens to your kite, ADC is has a kite-repair clinic where you can go get the kite checked out and fixed up. And if you’re the one wanting to get fixed up, there’s also an area where volunteer EMTs will teach you a 10-minute course in CPR and get you certified! That area is over by the hospitality tent run by the Exchange (the big white two-pointed tent along the west side of the grounds).

What are you waiting for? It’s a gorgeous day and the skies over Zilker Park are full of kites! Come join us!

One More day until the 84th Kite Day in Austin!

It’s not too late to clear off the kitchen table and make that homemade kite for Sunday’s kite contest in Zilker Park! While you’re working on your diamond kite masterpiece, here are some things to think about your Sunday in the park.

Come hungry! You’ll have many, many unique choices such as Arepas Venezuelan Grill, Verts Kebabs, Longhorn Fried Rice, Yummy Dumpling, Chedd’s Gourmet Grilled Cheeses, Colibri Cuisine, and many more.

Want more traditional Festival Fare?…try County Fare Catering, As Good As it Gets, Snowie, Funtastic Funnel Cakes, Hill Country Kettle Corn, or the Exchange Club Café.

How about a food truck, such as Kebbabilicious, Yume Burger, or the Peached Tortilla?
Want something beefy? Try Carl’s Jr. or Texas Traditional BBQ.

Did I here someone ask about their sweet tooth?…No worries, the Kite Fest has you covered with Amy’s Ice Cream, Mom and Pops Frozen pops, Culver?s Custard (next to the Exchange Club Café), Soco Eats with their chocolate covered treats, and Happy Ice — to name a few.

Hungry yet? Better finish that homemade kite so you can get to Zilker early!

What are Soldiers doing at the Kite Festival!?

Finished your homemade kite yet? There’s still time. While you’re taking a break reading this blog, let’s talk about all those guys in uniform we keep seeing at the Kite Fest. Who are those guys (and women)?

They’re volunteers who also happen to be members of the Texas State Guard! To quote their website, “The Texas State Guard (TXSG) mission as a branch of the Texas Military Forces is to provide mission-ready military forces to assist State and local authorities in times of state emergencies, with homeland security and community service through Defense Support to Civil Authorities (DSCA).” These are the men and women who volunteer to head into a hurricane or disaster while the rest of us are leaving. These brave folks have worked in hurricanes Ike, Gustav, Dolly, Rita, Katrina, and many more. The list is endless and their service unending.

O.K., so why are they at the Kite Festival? Since the Exchange Club is a (relatively small) all-volunteer organization, and because so many Austinites (a whole lot of us) come down to the park to fly kites, we need more people helping during shuttle-bus loading and unloading, at parking lots, and around the event. Some of our state guard soldiers have volunteered their off-duty time on Sunday to help the Exchange Club keep the Kite Fest running smoothly. Please be sure to give them a big “thank you!” when you see them.

Now, better get back to that homemade kite!

Join us on Sunday to fly a kite!

One of your intrepid organizers, Bunnie Twidwell, stopped by myFOXaustin to talk about the festival.

Go Fly a Kite this Weekend: MyFoxAUSTIN.com

Get Ready to Go Fly a Kite!

Hello all you anticipatory kite flyers! Only 4 more days till the 84^th Kite Day in Austin!

Time to start watching this space closely for news on how to make your first Sunday in March at Zilker the best ever. The Exchange Club of Austin wants to make sure all our wonderful sponsors are recognized first, though. We can’t fly Kites on Sunday, March 4^th without them!

Big thanks go out to The Austin Diagnostic Clinic, who is sponsoring the Kite Clinic this year. If your your kite breaks, don’t panic, come on by the Kite Clinic next to the Kite Contest field and Dr. Don and his volunteers from Austin Diagnostic Clinic will help you fix that kite right up and get flying again.

Thank you to our friends at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld for sponsoring the free Water Stations this year. If you need to wet your whistle, just drop on by the Event Solutions water stations at Rock Island or down by the volleyball courts to fill your water bottle up for free. Didn’t bring your own bottle?…no worries, we’ll sell you a souvenir water bottle and you can quench your thirst and donate to local children’s charities all at the same time.

Don’t have a kite? Come over to the H-E-B Kite Making Tent on the southeast side of the Kite Contest field and make one for free. Our good friends at H-E-B have graciously donated their time, money, tent, and volunteers to make this important part of the Festival happen year after year. Thank’s H-E-B!

Want to try to win a kite? Come over to the Whole Earth Provisions Co. display on the west side of the field to enter the raffle for a kite and more. Whole Earth has graciously donated these items to help the Exchange Club raise money for the Pebble Project. Thanks Whole Earth!

The list just keeps going – all those businesses who love Austin, love Austin families, and want to keep one of the oldest free family events in the country going. Thanks to Silicon Labs, Austin Subaru, Culture Map of Austin, Culver’s, ParentWise Magazine, KLBJ News Radio, Bob FM, 107.1 La Z, YNN Your News Now. Thank you!

And going – Amy’s Ice Cream, Stratus Properties, Xerox, Clif Bar, Luke’s Locker, the Winkler Family Foundation, and the Zilker Neighborhood Foundation. Thank you, thank you!

Stay tuned : More posts coming soon about practical stuff like where to park, who are those folks in uniform, what can I eat, and all the other details that make an outing so much fun. Keep ‘em flying!

A really big Thank You – Let’s fly some Kites!

Well, we’re just 12 days away from the 84^th Annual Kite Day in Zilker Park! Plans are swirling around more than the wind down at the Great Lawn!

The Exchange Club of Austin would like to take a brief moment to say Thank You to all of our wonderful sponsors this year. You know, the folks who believe so strongly in the cause of helping children and keeping a free Family event for the City of Austin going that they stepped up to help us make the Kite Festival happen.

Our two presenting sponsors this year are the City of Austin and ABC Home and Commercial Services. It is no exaggeration to say that if these two entities has not partnered with The Exchange Club this year, the city’s 83 year old tradition might have been lost.

Thank you, thank you to Bobby Jenkins and the entire crew at ABC for their support and assistance this year. You’ll be seeing a lot of volunteers at the Festival this year, so be sure to thank them when you see them.

Thank you, thank you again to the Councilperson Chris Riley, Mayor Lee Leffingwell, Councilperson Mike Martinez, and all the city staff for their leadership and support to help keep this family friendly city event going. Thanks to the hardworking staff of your city government, the kites will fly again over Zilker on March 4 and local charities will benefit.

Stay tuned to this spot for daily updates leading up to the Festival with announcements concerning the incredible assortment of food vendors coming to this year’s Festival, details about free shuttles, the increased effort to be a greener event, and much, much more. Keep ‘em flying!