The Midnight Squadron will be flying at the Washington Monument on Sunday.

I will be flying at the Washington Monument on Sunday, April 10, from 2pm to 4pm. I intend to fly on the Mall where the Blossom Kite Festival should be, in the corner of Constitution and 17th. We will fight rokkaku.

I will do this regardless of any government closure or shutdown. I state this because the Kite Fly must happen, and it’s not practical to postpone it indefinitely at the last moment. Flying during a government closure won’t stop our participation in the Blossom Kite Festival, when it happens. I will make plan the details and discuss in the comments.

The only things that will keep me off the Mall are official fences, armed guards and lightning.
Let nothing less stand in the way of our flying!

your Scribe and Rokkaku Battlemaster,
Complex

You can read more detail at the Kite Loft page.

OceanCity.com lists rokkaku fighting as one of the events, which you know got my attention.

Expo features impressive ground & air demonstrations of color & imagination. Activities include sport kite demonstrations, giant kites and lessons in kite making. Events & other competitions such as candy drops & rokkaku battles throughout the weekend. Come enjoy one of the largest kite festivals in the USA. Located on the beach at N. Division St. on 6th St. Hours: Friday through Sunday from 9am – 9pm. For more information, contact Jay Kerr at 410-289-7855 or visit www.kiteloft.com.

Interested in going? Arranging travel & rooming? Discuss in comments!

Please come out and cheer for the Squadron in the Rokkaku Challenge. I think we’ll give you a lot to cheer for — we usually put on an energetic and noisy show, and we’ve been winning a lot. To brag a little, last year, our various teams won at Smithsonian and Wildwood and took second in the AKA Nationals, and I won the individual combat in the Nationals. So I can promise that your enthusiasm will be well placed and rewarded with action.

I’ll continue posting info and follow-ups here, so check back in. You can also find more details about the festival’s schedule, children’s events, and rules at the Smithsonian Kite Festival website.

Read ongoing festival news at our twitter feed, MidnightSquad, which is also shown on the right side of our home page.

Two weeks from now: AKA in Minneapolis!

rok battle-lost heat 1 but won rest.Wwoods champs!

Congrats to the Midnight Squadron team for winning team rokkaku at the Wildwood International Kite Festival!  I’m sure Complex will give us the tip-by-tip when he gets online next.

The field was great, tough, and fierce. The weather was friendly to us — the ugly dampness soaked our line, protecting us from Harold Ames & Charlie Don’t Run’s skilled slicings, and the light wind was familiar from our usual low-wind Low-Down Dirty Kite Fights.

Iron Kite spooled and Complex piloted, while Kalika Chris coached. We lapped the field 3 times, and finished last in the air in the first and third heats.

More later!

This year’s theme is Green Environmentalism. As usual, there will be lots of fun kiting and kid-centric events for all of you spawners.

Our Rokkaku Fighting Team will be on the field seeking a fourth (? I’ve lost count) 1st place trophy. The combat is at 3pm!

Here’s the Smithsonian’s description of their theme:

This year’s festival is going GREEN.

The Kite Festival (Saturday, March 28, 10 am to 4 pm) will explore how being ‘green’ and utilizing natural resources can be a fun, creative, and fulfilling experience. What better way to celebrate our environment than by coloring the sky with kites fashioned from renewable resources and powered by the wind?

This year, honor planet Earth by creating both environmentally and thematically ‘green’ kites that positively reflect the beautiful resources we have available. In lieu of constructing with ‘green’ materials, you could create a traditional kite with a ‘green’ theme…The sky is literally the limit-so be creative and push the limits, have fun, and go ‘green’! Whatever you end up creating, please make sure that all kites fly according to AKA specifications.

(Ummm, wouldn’t “fly according to AKA specifications” just mean not flying into power lines and not crashing into crowds?)

Read more at the Smithsonian Kite Festival website, including a list of activity tents and a schedule that starts at 10 am.

For Kite-Flying Children

because there are so many of you nowadays. There’s a poetry contest for 1st-8th graders.

I didn’t see anything about a children’s kite-making workshop, but there’s usually one at the Smithsonian — the week before, I believe. Keep an eye open for it.

Also, will start tracking kite combat scores from battles everywhere, so fighters can keep track of what’s going on in the comunity and their relative standings. I’m planning out the online systems now. In the meanwhile, you can view the scores from the 2008 MIKE individual rok battle, kindly provided by Mike van Meers.

Complex’s MIKE notes from the field:

• Team Rok, all Sun events cancelled. Colder, wet- fly away home. April 27, 2008 10:48 AM
• Very heavy winds, cold. Flew some. April 27, 2008 10:39 PM
• My night fly cut short by weird, silent, strobe lightening. April 26, 2008 10:45 PM
• Indie Rok battle: vs. big guys, friendly battle. Complex won! April 26, 2008 11:38 AM
• Rokkaku Combat (individual) at 12:30 pm! April 25, 2008 8:53 PM

Also, let’s go to two more kite festivals: the Maryland International Kite Expo (MIKE) at the end of April and The Wildwoods International Kite Festival at the end of May.

The rokkaku battle was a beautiful melee of around 14 teams! That many teams left less than six feet between kites when we were setting up, and made it near impossible to avoid tangles in the air. It was a beautiful bar-fight of a battle. Sadly, it’s not a battle we won or placed in; the Midnight Squadron team couldn’t move beyond Thunderdome. We did earn two kills, however, and we were last up in the third heat.

A sudden-death heat had to decide the battle. The Smithsonian Associates lost to The Bike Shop, which was flying the “Fixed Gears” kite, one of the three black-and-white kites made by the same guy.