Team Mangalore to Represent India at International Kite Festival in France
Media Release
Mangalore, Sep 1: 'Team Mangalore', the city-based hobby group of kite flyers has been officially invited by Sebastian Jumail, mayor of Dieppe, France to represent India at the 17th International Kite Festival at Dieppe, France.
The team with its versatile kite collection and its mission to spread culture through kites is all set to take off to France.
The Team Mangalore is the only team representing India in this International Kite Festival being held at Dieppe from September 8 to September 17, a 10-day festival involving participation from over 42 countries across the globe.
The five-members team consisting of Sarvesh Rao, Dinesh Holla, Sathish Rao, Shashank Shetty and Pran Hegde will participate in this event. Dinesh Holla, artist of the team Mangalore will be exhibiting over 35 art works related to kites during the festival at the special exhibition stands, a great honour to Team Mangalore.
This time the theme of the festival is “Five Elements”. The theme kite competition will be held during the festival and the team is all set to compete with rest of the world with its new creation “Pancha Bhootha”, This kite is made up of rip stop nylon fabric in Rokaku (hexagon) shaped measuring 5 Feet by 4 feet..
In addition, the team has created a new kite “Pakshiraja Garuda”, an appliqué work kite with wing spread of 18 feet and height of 9 feet. This is an art kite designed specially for the event. The team would fly their special kites such as Yakshagana, Kathakalli, Gajaraja, Charlie Chaplin, Avatar Bird, Bharathnatya, Pushpaka Vimana, etc. along with their other wide variety of kites, showcasing the cultural diversity of India in general and coastal Karnataka in specific.
It may be recollected that the team had earlier been to France, England and Canada, winning “Best International Kite“ award for its fabulous kite collections. The “Kathakkali” kite of Team Mangalore has found its place as the “Largest Kite in India” in the Limca Book of Records. Recently, during April 2012, the team participated in the Italy and South Korea International kite festival.
Incidentally, the kite festival in Dieppe is said to be one of the world’s 300 not to be missed events. More information about this festival is available in http://www.dieppe-cerf-volant.org.