9th Annual Free Family Kite Festival in the Santa Maria Valley

On the weekends, we are always on the lookout for fun things to do with our kids. This past weekend, we learned about the 9th Annual Free Family Kite Festival that was hosted by the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum. Santa Maria Valley is home to delicious restaurants, beautiful wineries with vineyards, beaches and a variety of family activities throughout the year. I’ve lived on the California Central Coast for 8 years now (Nipomo is about 20 minutes from the Santa Maria Valley) and I’d never been the Free Family Kite Festival before. It was fun taking our son Dallen to the festival and checking out the different vendors, as well as flying a kite with all the other families who were there.

If you are thinking about attending and would like a close parking spot, I would advise getting there super early as the spots fill up pretty quick in the parking lot and families get settled in for the day. No need to fret though as there is lots of street parking in the neighborhoods surrounding Centennial Park. We parked on the street and could see the kites flying in the sky from where we parked. It was pretty cool! When we turned the corner, we saw a huge field with lots of families flying their kites and getting their kites ready to take flight.

In the field, families were flying a variety of kites. If you didn’t bring a kite, no worries because there was a stand where you could buy a kite to fly at the event (pretty smart thinking)! Dallen picked out a MicroKite to fly and had a blast doing it! I loved that there were people of a variety of ages flying kites – from babies to grandparents!

In addition to the field where the kites were being flown, there were a variety of vendors set up with booths. A lot of the vendors had activities for the kids to participate in (some free and some for a small fee). Dallen spun the wheel at the YMCA booth and won a week long family pass to the YMCA. He took a picture with the Rodeo Queen (whom we also made a donation buy purchasing raffle tickets). He created a paper plate painting with the people from Cultural Homestay International. He even had his face painted with a storm trooper from Star Wars! In addition to fun activities, there were also booths with food available for purchase.

At the festival, there was also a booth with team members from the Santa Maria Sun Newspaper. They were giving away balloons and candy to the kids and also had a fun photo opp for parents to take pictures of their kids. Another booth I found was that for the Santa Maria Discovery Museum. I remember taking my kids there when they were little and know that when my niece visits, she enjoys visiting the Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum. They have a lot of new exhibits and activities going on and I would love to check them out again!

While walking around the Family Kite Festival, you could choose to fly a kite, eat delicious fair food, participate in a variety of the family activities, or sit back and enjoy the music performed by local family band Birdie. The kids were having a blast listening and dancing to the music!

The Family Kite Festival was a lot of fun and I hope to go with all 6 of our kids next year! I’d never been to Centennial Park and definitely want to revisit to fly kites with my family on other occasions in the future. Be sure to check out Santa Maria Valley for a variety of activities and events throughout the year!

Have you been to the Family Kite Festival in Santa Maria Valley before?