Kite Fest Brings Robots And Picassos To Brooklyn Bridge Park

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK — A swarm of kites designed by you and launched by robots will take to the skies of Brooklyn this weekend, according to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.

"Lift Off: A Waterfront Kite Festival," is expected to bring hoards of New Yorkers to Brooklyn Bridge Park's Pier 5 from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday for an afternoon of kite designing, learning, launching and, of course, flying.

There will also be live music by Brass Queens, stilt walkers, face-painters and ample opportunities for picnicking.

“[The festival] is an opportunity for visitors to experience the park in a completely new way,” said Nancy Webster, Executive Director for Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy.

"Our programming regularly covers land and sea; but at Kite Festival, we want visitors to look above and take to the sky."

Organizers hope to use the Kite Festival to teach kids about S.T.E.A.M topics — science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics — as well as show them a good time for free, said organizers. Thus the robots.

Here are the activities they came up with:

• The Brooklyn Robot Foundry will demonstrate its robotic flyer launcher.
• Nory will use robotic air propellers to teach how air circulation works.
• Private Picassos will help participants create spinning spiral wall-hangings .
• SPARK by Brooklyn Children's Museum will have textiles on hand for making kites.
• STEM Kids NYC will teach kite-making and how to build an anemometer to measure wind speed.
• Geeks Rule use balloons and straws to teach how air pressure is used to proper a jet plane.

• Brooklyn Public Library will provide Library Lab STEM activities .
• Genspace will provide petri dishes to sample the air's biome and see what inhabits the air we breathe.
• The Brooklyn Bridge Conservancy's Environmental Education Center will host a DIY pinwheel making station.

The Kite Festival will launch the 2019 Spring and Summer season in the Brooklyn Heights park, where New Yorkers can expect to find more than 500 free and low-cost events through August.

Find out what else is in store for the summer here.