Narragansettt Historical Society: Let’s Go Fly a Kite

Narragansettt Historical Society: 

Let’s Go Fly a Kite

By Chance Viles
Reporter
Posted Aug 1, 2018 at 10:30 PM
Updated Aug 1, 2018 at 10:49 PM

 TEMPLETON — The Narragansett Historical Society is holding its fourth annual Go Fly a Kite festival this weekend, which aims to bring back old-fashioned fun and get kids away from the screens and outside this summer.

According to Julie Cros­by, an organizer of the event and member of the Historical Society, not even many adults nowadays know how to fly a kite, so for members of the society who grew up on the windy past time, it is important to keep the wholesome fun of kite flying alive.

“To be honest with you, there is a lot of adults that have never flew a kite themselves, but the experience they will have of building a kite and actually flying it is rewarding,” Crosby said. “To get it in the air and keep it in the air, the adults need to think back about how much fun it was and convey that to their kids, at least ask them to give it a try.”

The event is totally free and open to all families and kite enthusiasts. It will be on a field off of Baldwinville Road. With no set address, Crosby says to keep an eye out for the signs and you will make it. It will be at Brooks’ field, near the intersection with Baptist Common Road.

“The parking and admission is entirely free,” Crosby said. “Parking is on the same field that we are flying kites, they will just park down on one end reserved for parking.”

Crosby got inspiration for the event from Newport Rhode Island’s kite festival. This year, they are having people from the Newport festival run a kite-building booth, so that kite-less attendees can take a shot at building and flying their creation.

“It is just so rewarding to build a kite and get it up in the air,” Crosby said. “We used to build them all the time. Now they are more advanced, but it’s cool. If I were a kid it’d be fun to build one and fly it.”

For the more competitive, there will be a tractor pull to participate in as well.

At family-friendly prices, they will be offering a barbecue lunch with hot dogs, burgers, cotton candy, popcorn and fudge.


“We are also going to have giant bubbles, like huge,” Crosby said. “I make up about 15-20 gallons of the mixture and we put it all in 10 tubs. I make the bubble wands, so when the bubbles come out they can be 2-3 feet in diameter. The kids have so much fun with them and so do the adults, so even if kites aren’t your thing come for the bubbles.”

There will also be a hay ride that will go around the field throughout the day.

Live entertainment will be supplied by local rockers Hoodoo Highway, from 12 to 4 p.m.

“They are like a mix of rock and country, I don’t know what to call them but they are good,” Crosby said about Hoodoo Highway.

While the event focuses on simple fun, it has seen growth year by year, so Crosby and the Historical Society are expecting a pretty large turnout.

“I think at the beginning, the first year we did it, not that we didn’t get anyone but people didn’t really know. They are thinking, ‘kites?’ The following year we had more people,” Crosby said. “Last year a lot more people came. I am not sure what the turnout was as I was working the event, but what we are trying to do this year is get 100 kites in the air at once, that is our goal.”

The event is Sunday, Aug. 5, from noon to 5 p.m.

“We hope at least this could be the one day parents could get their kids out in the field off the computers and out flying kites, to bring them back to old fashion fun. Each year it seems so far so good,” Crosby said.