LONG BEACH, Wash. – The Washington State International Kite Festival brings kite enthusiasts from all over the world to the southwest Washington coast the third full week of August each year. This year’s festival will be held Aug. 15 through 21, with another kite-related event the previous weekend.

The Washington State Parks and the North American Power Kite Association have been experimenting with kite buggy demonstrations along the Washington Pacific Ocean beaches. There will be six days of demonstrations at the Klipsan Beach approach, from Saturday, Aug. 13, through Thursday, Aug. 18. Buggy riders will show the fun and skills of buggy travel and will answer questions about the sport.

The festival really takes to the skies starting Monday, Aug. 15, with the Roundhouse in the Sky, featuring kite trains, arches and stacks competition, Pullman breakfast and a beginning kite train workshop. Festival events continue through the week, with guest flyers Bas Vreeswijk (Netherlands) and Karl Longbottom (England), indoor kite flying at Long Beach Elementary School, attempts to set kite flying world records, kids’ and seniors’ flying contests, fighter kite team battles, fun flies, mass ascensions, a tribute to John Freeman, lighted kite night fly, teddy bear drop, a workshop on how to take photographs of kites and more.

This year’s theme is dragons. A Dragon Kite Fly will start at 11 a.m. Thursday, and will feature Ken Conrad, the Master of Chinese Dragons, Dale Ray’s modern dragon plus its lifter, a parafoil with dragon images, Whitebird dragons from the 90s and Debbie Cooley’s rokkaku with dragon appliqué. Mylar dragons still available from the 1980s will also appear. Bring any kind of dragon kite – funny or scary – and join the group any time to fly for an hour or more.

The festival wraps up Sunday with the awards banquet and museum auction starting at 5:30 p.m. This is a social get-together of stories of the past week, awards for competitions, special presentations and a chance to support the World Kite Museum by donating items or getting kite bargains in the bag raffle, silent auction and the live auction.

Advance sale tickets are $20, which includes tax and tips. Tickets at the door are $25 until they run out. Tickets are available in the Kite Museum and the Museum Tent under the flagpole.

The World Kite Museum and Hall of Fame is located at 303 Sid Snyder Drive. For more information, call (360) 642-4020 or visit www.worldkitemuseum.com