Dear Citizens of Austin,

Thank you for your support of the entirely volunteer organized 85th ABC Annual Zilker Kite Festival. Austinites certainly showed how much they love the event by just the numbers of folks who came out to enjoy the kites and support our nonprofit efforts to assist local charities for the prevention of child abuse.

Amidst the positive feedback, some of you have expressed concerns about traffic/parking and the amount of trash created by so many people flying kites from dawn till dusk in the park. We share your concerns.

As for parking and traffic, we’ve added additional shuttles and stops in recent years to keep up with the increase in attendance. This year we had parking lots dedicated to the festival both north and south of the park, with 22 shuttles and 2 special needs buses running routes on a regular schedule. We continue to monitor traffic flow and capacity each year, and we’ll adjust allocated resources according to the anticipated needs of each upcoming event.

We had paid contractors and volunteer staff picking up trash and recyclables for 12 hours on Sunday during the event and 10 hours on Monday. With vigilant efforts, we had the park clean by Monday afternoon. (The kites in the trees take a little longer to get down, but that’s being worked on, also.)

At the 2012 event, according to Austin Resource Recovery, 37% of the trash accumulated was recycled. The 2013 number is still being calculated. Hopefully, even with the tremendous turnout, we did better this year and can continue to improve.

We are already working with our friends at Austin Resource Recovery and Parks and Recreation Department to plan for 2014. As organizers, we need to do a better job of providing clean, available receptacles as you are leaving. Working together, we can keep this unique Austin event going for another 85 years.

If you want to pitch in even more, please contact us about volunteer or sponsorship opportunities specific to recycling and trash pick-­up efforts. We can be reached at kites@zilkerkitefestival.com. If you can’t volunteer or sponsor, you can always donate to help keep the Kite Festival flying. Our donate button can be found in the sidebar at the right.

Zilker Kite Festival