International Kite Festival begins today in Gujarat

The five-day 20th International Kite Festival will be kicked off today at the Sabarmati riverfront. Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd (TCGL) chairman Kamlesh Patel will inaugurate the festival on Sunday. From 9 am to 11 am, there will be registration of the kitists coming from different parts of the world and India. At 11 am, the kite festival will begin and continue till 4 pm.

At 5 pm, tourism minister Jaynarayan Vyas will inaugurate a theme pavilion on 'Swarnim Gujarat' and handicraft of Gujarat. On Monday, 7,000 schoolchildren will perform 'suryanamaskar' at the venue in the presence of chief minister Narendra Modi and Governor Dr Kamala Beniwal. In all, 105 kitists from 34 countries and 120 Indian kitists will participate in the kite flying and kite making competition.

These participants will go to Porbandar and Surat in two groups to participate in 'Patang Mahotsav' there on January 13.  On January 14, these participants will watch traditional kite flying in the Pols of old city in Ahmedabad and will take part in the heritage walk of the city.

Some of the main attractions of the festival are flying of colourful kites from different countries, parasailing, para-jumping, handicraft market, food court, adventure sports, and kite painting and exhibition on Shyamji Krishna Verma.