Kites perk Cauayan’s Gawagaway- yan Festival

CAUAYAN CITY, Isabela — The ongoing “Gawagaway-yan Festival” of this city which celebrates good harvest – saw clear skies painted with bright colors of 70 kites over SM City, here, last week.

Through the 2nd Kite Festival set at SM City, around 50 children were gathered for a workshop that taught them how to make kites and fly them with the help of the Kite Association of the Philippines (KAP).

KAP president Orlando Ongkingco said their aim was to revive the old games like kite flying especially among the youth, and promote it as a better alternative activity to computer games.

“We are losing the game especially in cities where open spaces have been converted to buildings. We are doing this activity here at the rooftop of SM to show that it can be done on top of the building and the absence of open spaces is not reason not to play kite,” Ongkiko said.

Krystal Gayle Agbulig, SM City Cauayan public relations officer, said children who went through the workshop then used the kites the designed in the competition.

The categories for the competition were the “Guryon” or regular flat kites in which 11 joined; 3D kites, with eight participants; the banner kites, with three; and the geometrical kites with six.

Abulig said that since kite making and kite flying are skills, such workshops need to be conducted in order to bring back the tradition of kite flying to children.

During the workshop, Ongkiko underscored that while opens spaces ideal for kite flying have already been occupied by buildings, this is not an excuse for the youth to lose interest in it. Even on roofs of buildings, kite flying can be enjoyed, he said.