Beautiful kites flutter in Bali's skies

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Contributor, Bali

Colorful kites of different sizes clouded Bali's skies when participants of the 24th Bali Kite Festival tried their best to outdo each other.

The introduction of stricter kite size regulations and even a failed record-breaking attempt did not stop kite enthusiasts from across Bali amassing at the festival ground in Padanggalak, two kilometers north of Sanur, literally causing most activities in the area to grind to a halt.

The regulation introduced in this year's festival, which was held from July 25 to July 28, is necessary because several years ago the festival did not only become the largest gathering of kite enthusiasts, but also an annual source of irritation, particularly for motorists and traffic police.

The nuisance, in the form of enormous, paralyzing traffic jams, was caused by the seemingly misguided competitive spirit of the festival's participants, who were mostly from traditional customary youth organizations in numerous customary villages in Denpasar and Badung. Each participant tried to outdo the others by making the biggest kite possible and also by assembling the largest entourage of local enthusiasts to escort the kite to the festival ground.

Then, these groups of young men, all donned in traditional costume and T-shirts of their respective Sekeha Teruna Teruni, took to the streets, proudly displaying their kites all the way to the festival ground. The result was all too predictable: Hours of traffic jams in most parts of the city.

Some of the groups went by foot, accompanied by the blaring tunes of their own traditional Bleganjur ensemble. Others carried the kites by trucks, tightly escorted by the participants' convoy of motorbikes.

The situation was even worse around the festival's ground in Padanggalak. Thousands of kite enthusiasts from all over Bali flocked to the area and the traffic was virtually brought to a halt. Road users responded to this problem by repeatedly lodging angry complaints at the festival's organizing committee.

"Objections did not only come from the general public, but also from traffic police officers, who were frustrated with the traffic jams," said the festival's chief of the board of judges, Susila Patra.

Finally this year, the committee decided to do something about the problem.

"There was never a size limit for kites at previous festivals. This year, however, we have had to do it, otherwise people would keep blaming the committee for causing the traffic jams," the committee's chairman, Rai Andayana, said.

The newly introduced regulation stipulated that the size of any participating kite must not exceed seven meters in length and four meters in width.

"Any larger than this and the kites would take up too much space, causing traffic jams when they are being transported to and from the festival ground," Rai said.

The committee also strongly urged each participant to carefully time their departure and arrival time at the festival ground to prevent encountering other participants at the same time, thus causing severe traffic jams.

Participants who came from areas far from the festival ground were required to arrive as early as possible.

Most of this year's participants did not seem to object to the new regulation and tried their best to abide by it. In the end, the traffic jams were not as bad as in previous years.

Some participants from North Badung even followed the new regulation to the extreme, arrived at the ground two days prior to the opening of the festival.

Still, several participants still thought the rule was made to be broken.

One participant deliberately broke the rule in order to set a new record for the biggest kite in Indonesia.

"The kite was sponsored by an individual who spent at least Rp 30 million to construct this giant kite," a source said.

The kite, in the form of the traditional jangan (eagle) was 10-meters long, seven-meters wide, and with an enormous 250-meter long tail.

Unfortunately, the team from the Indonesian Museum of Records (MURI), and of course the kite's owner, eventually had to leave the festival ground disappointed after the kite did not even manage to take off.

Weak winds and insufficient human assistance -- the giant kite was manned by only 16 people, while many smaller kites in the festival were manned by at least 20 people each -- were two elements blamed for the failure.

A few years ago, participants from Gumicik village in Sanur tried to do a similar thing. They constructed a giant kite, 20- meters long, to set a new record at the festival. The kite could not take off and the record-breaking attempt was soon forgotten.

Participants of this year's festival were higher in number. Some 991 groups participated this year, compared to 680 in 2001 and 590 in 2000.

"This increase (in the number of participants) amazes me. The cost of constructing a kite is between Rp 5 million and Rp 10 million, and each Sekeha Teruna Teruni usually builds more than three kites. With the present economic crisis, it is amazing they can come up with such a huge amount of money to construct these kites," an observer said.

And winners of the festival do not receive much either. The first winner only takes home a trophy and just Rp 1.5 million in cash.

"Well, they (the Sekeha Teruna Teruni) took part in this event not for the reward, but for pride, so they can 'show of' their respective village's ability and achievement," Rai said.

Initially, Rai said, Balinese farmers flew kites to express their gratitude to the gods after an abundant harvest. This semi- sacred function was the reason why the colors of Balinese traditional kites are the combination of red, black, white and yellow, the colors of the Hindu's trinity of Brahma, Wisnu and Siwa.