Mark your calendars; the date for this year’s Festival Tipico de Guatemala de New Bedford – the Guatemalan Kite Festival – has been announced.
Like year’s wildly successful fest, it will once again be held in Riverside Park off Belleville Avenue in #NorthEndNB. The date will be Saturday, September 21.
But this year, you can start flying high even earlier.
#LoveTheAve artist Tracy Barbosa will be holding a Wicked Cool Barriletes de Guatemala kite-making workshop on Saturday, May 4 at Hatch Street Studios. That’s also in the north end and located just #OffTheAve at 88 Hatch Street.
You’ll need your kite ready to go if you hope to participate in another kite festival – the New Bedford Kite Festival on Saturday, July 27 at Fort Taber in the city’s south end.
That fest is part of the DATMA – Design, Art, Technology Massachusetts – “Summer Wind” season-long public art project.
Festival Tipico de Guatemala honors both a craft and religious tradition. That tradition in Guatemalan culture centers around the first and second days of November each year – part of the All Saint’s Day celebrations in the neighboring towns of Sacatepequez and Sumpango.
Many countries worldwide mark the Christian festival with family gatherings and silent prayers. But Guatemala’s residents transform their country into a land of flying colors with their Barriletes Gigantes festival, which translates into “giant kits” in English.
Enormous kites, some more than 40 feet in diameter, are painted by hand throughout the year and flown over the graves of family members while flowers are strewn on the ground below.
At the kite-making workshop on Saturday, May 4 at Hatch Street Studios here in New Bedford, kites will be be made with dowels and “papel de chine” – tissue paper – and yes, they fly!
And, you’ll be ready for both the summer kite fest in July and the Festival Tipico de Guatemala de New Bedford on Saturday, Sept. 27 at Riverside Park in #NorthEndNB.
The free workshop, thanks to a Wicked Cool Places #NBCreative grant, takes place from noon to 4:00 p.m. Find out more here.
See pictures from last year’s Festival Tipico de Guatemala de New Bedford here.