TWO RIVERS, Wis. (NBC 26) -- The 15th annual Kites over Lake Michigan was moved to Two Rivers High School from Neshotah Beach due to unusually high lake water levels.
"There was no way we could do it at the beach," festival founder Chow Chong said of the approximately 30 feet of beach available to kiters. "We had some alternate sites in our mind, where to do it, and the high school was our first choice."
Chong says that Two Rivers' Board of Education granted them use of the high school property as long as no pets were allowed, consistent with their usual rule.
While the festival usually draws at least 30,000 spectators and participants, the pandemic conditions likely contributed to smaller numbers this year.
As hundreds filled the parking lot on the first day of the weekend-long event, the school fields provided expansive space to accomodate for social distancing. Kiters say that the sport lends a hand to natural distancing as well, making it a safer activity to take up alone or in a group in the midst of COVID-19.
"You don't want to get your kites too close together to start with, because if they start getting tangled up, it's gonna be a catastrophe," Paul Koepke, captain of Fire & Ice kite teams said. "For us, we're not that close together most of the time, there are a few occasions when we may be right next to each other, but that's only for a few seconds. And we're all facing with our backs to the winds so everything is going down wind anyhow."
Fire & Ice has been a duo since 2003 and trio since 2013, serving as a firsthand account for how inclusive and welcoming the kite community is, and what the team says is a hallmark characteristic of this family-friendly event.
Mark Ledvina is the third member that joined after learning from Koepke and Kathy Brinnehl.
"It's just such a nice thing to get outside with and be with other people," Ledvina said. "Everybody is willing to help and that's a huge part of kiting."
"That's why we call it the kite family," Brinnehl said, "and we want everybody to have successful fun."
While Chong said that he didn't plan on asking for sponsorships this year because of the pandemic's impact on the economy, but he said the committee is overwhelmed not only by the businesses that showed up to financially support them, but also how the community rallied around the event as well.
