At annual festival, thousands of kites take flight on the Mall

The kite was in bad shape. Made of a pink plastic bag with “The Redeemer” emblazoned in red on the side, the kite was missing a crossbow, the connections were weak and the tail was too short.

Val Deale, a.k.a. the Kite Doctor, extended his arms, mimicking a kite catching the wind. He explained the diagnosis and set to work.

“The thing with kite building is accuracy and symmetry,” he said, as he fit a fiberglass rod, added red tape and tied a long red streamer to the point of the triangle.

The kite’s owner, 8-year-old Teddy Oh, watched in silence as hundreds of kites sailed through the air above him.

The Blossom Kite Festival draws tens of thousands of novice and expert fliers from around the country to the Mall every year. The festival marks the official kickoff for kite-flying season and for 70 years has been part of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, a four-week-long celebration of spring and the District’s trademark blooms.

This year, the day started with the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” as two red, white and blue flags sailed through the sky jerking and waving to the music. Then, kite obsessives — a license plate read “Kite Bum” — launched their fliers despite little wind.

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Kite master Mikio Toki traveled from Japan for the festival and has spent two weeks in Washington, teaching students to make kites. He showed off his own kites at the festival, which featured synchronized and choreographed demonstrations by professional kite teams, Japanese drumming performances and kite-making competitions. Organizers were prepared to give out 3,000 kite-making kits.

Among the tents on the Washington Monument grounds for kite-making, crafts and face painting sat the Kite Doctor, an accomplished kite expert on hand to fix mended kites and get them back in the air, free of charge. A sign in the tent filled with a tiny rotary saw, extra fiberglass rods and tiny instruments said, “Kite Hospital, pre-existing conditions accepted!”

Jeffrey Burka, 54, of Northwest Washington, said some kite people consider it a sport, others an art form and still others geek out over building them themselves. A half century of flying under his belt, he advised beginners to look for a single-line delta kite, for their stability and ease in light wind.

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“If you don’t feel the wind, don’t bother trying … unless you’re an expert,” he said, using two lines to land his black and lime green kite with purple spikes like a bird on a branch.

Every kite enthusiast seems to have a different explanation for the significance of the bits of nylon and paper they love. Harbingers of springtime. A sign of the New Year in Japan. A symbol of Christ’s resurrection in time for Easter Sunday. A link between the divine and the human.

Deale, the Kite Doctor, has an answer befitting his background as a Gonzaga College High School philosophy student.

“Feet on the ground. Mind in the sky,” he said, first reciting his personal credo in Latin. “When you see a kite in the sky somehow you’re attached to something higher.”

Deale, 66, a District native living in Kensington, Md., has had a lifelong obsession with flying since he was a child fashioning kites from space model train parts. At 13, he won a festival trophy for making the funniest kite — a happy face with reflectors he nicked from a stop sign for eyes. Fifty years later, he was honored as the American Kitefliers Association’s 2019 kiteflier of the year.

Looking around at thousands of kites — ranging from the mundane butterflies, birds and jellyfish to the fantastical giant tiger, parade float-sized newborn and Baby Yoda — Deale gave another reason for all the enthusiasm: “Kites are fun.”

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But even as the wind picked up, Kevin Morgan, 47, of Chevy Chase, frowned, presenting his rainbow colored kite to Deale while holding his 2.5-year-old son, Cole. It simply wouldn’t get off the ground.

“I asked for dad-proof,” he said, recalling a trip to the toy store.

Deale added a rod and longer tail to the mini hang glider-shaped kite. “You’re all set. Have fun flying your kite,” he said.

Jeana Oh, the mom of the boy with the ailing pink kite, smiled as Deale fastened a red tail to her son’s kite. Teddy Oh worked on the kite all week at home in New York as an homage to World War II fighter pilots. He named it the “Redeemer” based on his Christian values. But when they got to the kite festival, it wouldn’t fly.

“He knew what was wrong with it before I even showed him the video,” she said, asking the kite doctor for a hug.

Deale admired the repaired kite, now a composite model made of traditional wood and modern fiberglass, “which is kind of cool,” he said.

“You hold the kite, Teddy. When I say, ‘Let go,’ let go,” Deale said.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1, let go!” The kite shot straight up, arched to the left and danced in the sky.

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