For 76 years, the Ocean Beach Kiwanis Club’s annual Kite Festival has been a community tradition treating participants to free kite building and flying.

This year’s free festival is Saturday, May 20 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. at Robb Field. The family-friendly event offers kite games for kids in all age groups and includes food trucks, craft fair vendors, and community information booths. Kids’ kites are judged in numerous categories and prizes are awarded.

The festival is sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Ocean Beach serving beach communities since 1928. Kiwanis is a global volunteer organization dedicated to improving the world one child and one community at a time.

“The main activity is the same as it has always been – children are taught how to make and fly a kite,” said OB Kiwanian Melanie Nickel who, along with her husband Jim, are longtime kite festival organizers. “Nowadays there are also spectacular demonstrations of kite ballet and other stunts by professional kite fliers. There is music, food, and a small off-street street fair. We believe it is the oldest kite festival for children in the United States. It has become a multi-generational tradition, with former participants bringing their children and grandchildren.”

Dr. Jim Nickel, now chairman of the event, attended the first OB Kite Festival in 1948. “I was in kindergarten at Warren-Walker Elementary,” he said adding the event left a “vivid impression. You can imagine the first time a child ever flies a kite – it’s something that makes a big impression on them.”

“This is a big event, and this year we have a lot of help putting it on,” said Melanie Nickel adding, “The Ocean Beach Woman’s Club has been partnering with us in all aspects of the event. We hope they will become co-sponsors of the festival starting next year.”

Kellee Waters, who is the granddaughter of the late Marion Miller, who kept the OB Kite Festival going for decades, and was referred to as the “Kite Lady,” agreed the kite fest is a proud – and fun – tradition. “I first attended in 1974 when I was at OB Elementary and it was a blast,” she said. Waters joked that she and others were so taken by the event that afterward, “Our whole lives revolved around saving the toilet paper rolls that went into making and flying the kites.”

Waters added the Nickels are better-prepared organizers for the kite festival than her grandmother was, whose approach was more freeform.“With her (Miller) it was really just everything coming together at the last moment like a whirlwind,” Waters said. “She would always be praying that the weather would always turn out good and it always did. I don’t know how she did it: She must have had a deal with the man upstairs.”

Jim Nickel talked about the kite festival’s purpose. “It’s never been a fundraiser,” he said. “It’s always been a give-back to the community, a free event benefiting the greater OB area including Pacific Beach, Midway, and Point Loma. This was always meant as a pure service project, at no cost to the participants, teaching them how to make and fly kites.”

Jim Nickel noted the kite fest has always had a touch of whimsy. “In the early days, we even had a kite parade down Newport,” he said. “In those days, they (organizers) supplied free food, hot dogs, buns, relish, and other condiments.” He added he has instructed kids and adults “hundreds of times” on how to assemble and fly their kites.

Dozens of teens who are Key Club members, a high school service organization, will help assemble kites. San Diego Kite Club will fill the sky with amazing kites, perform kite ballets, and stage kid’s kite games. As she’s done for decades, Obecian Claudia Jack will serve as the “Kite Doctor.” Carol Ladiges, owner of Lighthouse Ice Cream, is again donating prizes for the kite-decorating contest and games.

KITE FESTIVAL

When: Saturday, May 20 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m.

Where: Robb Field, 2525 Bacon St.