If you love flying kites and a family-fun atmosphere, then you should check out the 3rd Annual Orlando Kite Festival this weekend.
The Orange County Public School Academic Center for Excellence will host the event, which features STEM activities, a literacy lounge, food trucks and local vendors. Don’t have a kite? No problem. The first 100 kids will receive a free kite and someone to help with assembly before flying it.
Dr. Celina Dozier, a UCF professor teaching environmental engineering, said she uses the festival to introduce STEM concepts to children “in a very fun and unique way.” As it turns out, kites are an excellent example of those concepts at work.
Orlando Kite Festival
Dr. Celina Dozier, a UCF professor teaching environmental engineering, is the founder and creator of the Orlando Kite Festival. (Courtesy Orlando Kite Festival)
“Kites fly because of lift, drag, thrust, all different forces that are acting on the kite to get it to go up, to stay in the air, to have it come down,” she said. “So, there’s Bernoulli’s principle, balancing those different pressures and forces in the air. That’s why we love kites.”
But teaching wasn’t her initial goal.
She simply wanted to fly kites with her son.
The Jacksonville native had fond memories of attending the Texas ABC Kite Fest, which began in 1929, with her husband when she was in graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin.
She never imagined she’d be doing her own version in Orlando.
“[I was] just thinking about something to do with [him] and how much I enjoyed the festival there. I was like, why not bring it here?” she said.
Courtesy of the Orlando Kite Festival
Free kites are available to the first 100 kids at the Orlando Kite Festival. (Courtesy Orlando Kite Festival)
The Orlando Kite Festival is returning to familiar grounds in Parramore, where it took place in 2024 and 2025. Dozier added a few new wrinkles this time around, with more vendors and a family arcade space.
Sponsors include Winnie Palmer Hospital, Orlando Health, WUCF and their presenting sponsor, iHeartRadio.
With so many big names on tap for the third iteration, she’s working hard to create a bigger and better festival.
“I do want this event to grow in size and impact every single year,” Dozier said. That impact includes working with nonprofit organizations in the community, like Book’nic.
Book’nic is a nonprofit focused on promoting reading and literacy education for children in Central Florida. They’ll have a dedicated space at the festival featuring local authors and family-friendly activity stations.
She advises those who plan on attending to register at orlandokitefestival.com, but “if you wake up one day and decide you want to come to the Kite Festival, [you] can do that, too.”
If you go
The Orlando Kite Festival is from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. April 11 at 701 W. Livingston St. in Orlando. The event is free and open to the public. More information: orlandokitefestival.com