Detroit Kite Festival On Belle Isle Launches Crowdfunding Campaign To Get Off The Ground

One of the things that goes hand and hand with warm breezes and beautiful parks are kites.

But what if the island park had a whole kite festival? To that end, the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) and Detroit Kite Festival announced today a new crowdfunding campaign to support the Detroit Kite Festival, scheduled to take place July 16, 2017 at Cricket Field on Belle Isle.

If the campaign reaches its crowdfunding goal of $7,500 by Sunday, April 9, the project will receive a matching grant with funds made possible by MEDC’s Public Spaces Community Places program.

The funds raised through the crowdfunding campaign will not only support events during the day, but several events supporting and leading up to the celebration.

Thanks to partnerships with local organizations, there will be free transportation for 150 kids in Detroit to the festivities, as well as many sessions in different neighborhoods to including kite making and culture sharing around kites.

“Detroit Kite Festival will elevate community by uplifting kite flying and creation as a platform for radical inclusion, communal play, shared healing, and the celebration of culture and history,” Detroit Kite Festival director Margo Dalal said. “We are glad to be a part of the Public Spaces, Community Places program as its structure supports our outreach and will allow us to host community workshops for youth across Detroit, provide transportation to the festival for community groups, and provide free kites to youth at the festival. We hope to focus our market toward inviting Detroit-based community groups, artists, doers, makers and thinkers to come engage with kites at the festival.”

According to the campaign, the money will go to the following:

• Event logistics: This includes, tents, chairs, insurance, signs, volunteers, etc.
• Workshop series and day of kite making materials: This includes kite making kits and decoration supplies. 
• Workshop logistics: This includes the tables, chairs, transportation and insurance needed for the workshop series.
• Transportation: This is for the buses to take community groups to and from the festival.
• Merchandise and Kites: This includes the purchasing of official DKF kites to give away and DKF merchandise.
• Marketing and Design: This includes all promotion material, fliers, postcards, and design services.
• Miscellaneous Expenses/Cushion: This includes things they forgot we needed, and a little just in case something goes wrong!

The Detroit Kite Festival is in partnership with the Belle Isle Conservancy, The Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Wolverine Human Services, and Fresh Era Detroit.

The campaign is being offered through the Michigan-based platform Patronicity. For more project details and to donate, go here: http://www.patronicity.com/detroitkitefestival.