World’s biggest kite meeting celebrates its 40th anniversary

World’s biggest kite meeting celebrates its 40th anniversary

FANØ,

DENMARK
17. JULY 2025
LENGHT: 7.57
PRODUCER: Anders Kongshaug +45 23103058

SOURCE: fanoe kite friends
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STORY
World’s Biggest Kite Festival Celebrates Its 40th Anniversary Until Sunday

 

The festival opens officially on Thursday the 19th, but already now more than 5,000 kite enthusiasts from 26 countries across Europe, Asia, and the US are meeting ​at what they call “Fanø International Kite Fliers Meeting”​.

With its perfect winds, the island located on the northern edge of Europe, becomes a haven for over 25,000 big soaring kites—transforming the sky into the world’s biggest kite scenery.

 

The West coast of Denmark, where Fanø is located, faces both the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The island’s wide, flat beaches and consistent coastal winds make it ideal for kite flying. Visitors are even allowed to drive on the hard-packed sand that stretches approximately 14 kilometers (8.7 miles).

 

This long-standing tradition has placed Fanø at the forefront of the global kite community — a fact that delights festival organizer Paul Therkelsen:
“It started as something very small, not even official — just a few tourists flying kites. And now, forty years later, we are the largest kite-flyers’ gathering in the world.”

 

One highlight was a 100-meter-long Indonesian kite, which was first carried through the old town of Nordby — a historic seafaring village with roots back to the Viking Age around the year 700. The town’s church dates back to 1789 and once served Denmark’s first port receiving goods from exotic lands.

 

Island women became known for their fine fabrics and traditional costumes — even down to their undergarments — which are proudly displayed during parades, much to the delight of spectators.

“It’s fantastic. It’s really great to do it and to see the long tail here,” says visiting kiter Rüdiger Ueberschaer from Germany.

 

According to Terkeldsen, Indonesian kite-making can be traced back some 4,000 years, thanks to a cave painting discovered in 2002 on the Muna Islands in Indonesia. Their earliest kites were made from leaves — likely making Indonesian artisans the oldest kite builders in the world.

Historically, kites originated in Asia and were later introduced to Europe, where they became children’s toys and tools for scientific exploration.

 

In Indonesia, however, kites are much more than that — they are cultural expressions, spiritual symbols, and works of art. In Bali in particular, kite flying is a sacred tradition tied to gods and seasonal cycles.

 

Artist Kadek Armika explains:
“That line between the kiter and the kite — it’s like the connection between man and God. The string represents the Yin and Yang. This flight is the spiritual story behind kite flying in Indonesia.”

 

Kite flying there is a ritual of harmony — the flyer remains grounded while the kite ascends, forming a symbolic bridge between the earthly and the divine. Each region in Indonesia has its own distinct kite styles, reflecting myths, animals, and spiritual beliefs — all carried by the wind.

 

Participants from 26 countries are attending the annual event, including guests from Germany, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, the US, and Asia.

 

During the festival will there be various events, where forinstance all the shark-kites meet together for a competition, aswell as all in pink or shaped in bolls. The Indonesian kite makers wil also make world-shops, for both professionels and young people.


The world’s largest kite gathering concludes on Sunday, June 22, but many will stay longer, continuing to let their kites fly freely above the wide, open beaches of Fanø.
END

SHOTLIST 

  • BIG KITES BEHIND A POSTER: “Fanø International Kite Fliers Meeting”
    PAN TO THE SIGN AND BACK AGAIN
  • DRONE ALONG BEACH, PASSING KITES (SOME CLOSE), WITH HUNDREDS VISIBLE IN THE BACKGROUND. CARS DRIVING ON BEACH
  • DRONE PASSING BEACH KITES, INCLUDING A LION-SHAPED KITE
  • WIDE OF 10 KITES AND A CAMPER VAN ON THE BEACH
  • WIDE. BANNER “I love Fanø” WITH 8 KITES FLYING IN THE BACKGROUND
  • DRONE BEACH AND KITE OVERVIEW
  • SOUNDBITE Paul Therkelsen, Organizer:
     “We’re really happy to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Fanø International Kite Fliers Meeting. Because It vent from a very small — nothing like a festival, but just a couple of tourists flying kites. And then to now, where we forty years later are the biggest kite-flyier meeting in the world, with maybe up to 5 or 6,000 kite flyers are coming here to fly there kites, every year.”
  • WIDE.10 KITES AND MORE IN BACKGROUND. GROUP OF CARS AND CAMPERS ON BEACH
  • WIDE. KITES WITH DUNES AND BEACH IN BACKGROUND
  • PARADE WITH 100-METER INDONESIAN KITE CARRIED PAST NORDBY CHURCH (1786)
  • PEOPLE  CARRYING THE BLACK, WHITE, AND RED 100-METER INDONESIAN KITE THROUGH TOWN. TRADITIONAL INDONESIAN COSTUMES VISIBLE
  • WOMAN IN TRADITIONAL DRESS SHOWS LAYERES, INCLUDING A GLIMPSE OF TRADITIONAL UNDERWEAR.
    SOUND OF WHISTLING HEARD
  • GROUP WALKING WITH THE KITE
  • VOX-POP:
    Rüdiger Ueberschaer, Kiter (Germany):
     “It’s fantastic. It’s really great to do it and to see the long tail here. I’m so happy to be a part of it.”
  • WIDE. UNDER A KITE FLAG, LOOKING UP ALONG THE OLD STREET
  • WIDE. LARGE DRAGON KITE WITH 100-METER TAIL BEING SET UP AND LIFTED BY THE WIND
  • SOUNDBITE  Paul Therkelsen, Organizer cont.:
     “The main reason for having Indonesia here is their long tradition of kite flying in many, many years. But along long ago, they found in a cave a painting of a kite which is probably something around 4,000 years old – and  could be the  oldest known kite in the world. And, what we see behind me is the same type of kite they flewing 4.000 years ago — and this type of kite, we can also see this year being flown here on Fanø.”
  • INDONESIAN MAN IN TRADITIONAL COSTUME HOLDING WHAT IS BELIEVED TO BE THE OLDEST KITE IN THE WORLD, SMILING
  • SOUNDBITE  Frits Sauvé, Kiter (Netherlands):
     “What fascinates me in Europe is the fact, that the kite has been a very important tool in many aspects of society and science. And in Asia, the kite has been, and still it plays a very important role in cultural aspects – in celebrating things. That fascinates me –  both worlds it fascinates me very much.”
  • VOX-POP  Margit Knudsen, Fanø Resident:
     “It´s very beautiful and very big – and I have never seen something like that”
  • SOUNDBITE Kadek Armika, Indonesian kite builder and artist:
    “I come with the organic traditional kite, with the organic material, and traditional kite structure. And western is a modern style with high technology material and structure also”.
  • WIDE SHOT. BIG INDONESIAN KITE IS LAUNCHED AND TAKES FLIGHT
  • CLOSE-UP.  INDONESIAN KITE FLYER HOLDS THE LINE, WATCHING THE KITE
  • SOUNDBITE  Kadek Armika, Indonesian kite builder and artist (cont.):
    “The spirit to our kite and the philosophy of the kite tradition in Indonesia is very high spiritually. The one single line is between people and to the god. This flying with the vertical connecting. That is the story of the spiritual kite in indonesia”
  • KADEK ARMIKA FASTENING THE KITE
  • CLOSE-UP HANDS TYING ROPES TO THE KITE’S HEAD
  • WIDE. INDONESIAN KITE BUILDERS AT EACH END PREPARING THE KITE
  • INDONESIAN FLYER LAUNCHES A BIG KITE, WHICH TAKES TO THE WIND
  • THE 100-METER INDONESIAN KITE FLYING ALONGSIDE A LARGE RED KITE
  • DRAGON KITE FLIGHT WITH 100-METER TAIL IN BACKGROUND
  • MULTI-KITE SHOT – THREE INDONESIAN KITES FLYING TOGETHER; ONE DEPICTS A GOD
  • VOX-POP – Bianca Putri (Fanø), with her brother in background:
     “Because of my brother. He was looking a lot on YouTube about the kites and something like that — and then I saw on Facebook that they were coming to Fanø. And then I wanted to show him how it was here. Yeah, In real life, here on Fanø in Denmark. Yeah, It is really nice.”
  • WIDE SHOT – BIG RED KITE LIFTED INTO THE AIR WITH OTHER KITES IN BACKGROUND
  • SIGN – “Fanø International Kite Fliers Meeting” WITH INDONESIAN FLYERS WALKING BY
  • DRONE SHOT – EUROPEAN KITE IN AIR; PAN TO OTHERS
  • DRONE SHOT – HUNDREDS OF KITES FLYING OVER FANØ BEACH; CAMERA TRACKS LARGE ANIMAL-SHAPED KITES
  • WIDE SHOT – BIG SHARK KITE WITH SMALLER KITES IN FRONT
  • PAN – OVER VARIOUS LARGE AND SMALL FISH-SHAPED KITES
    DRONE – PASSING A RANGE OF KITES IN FLIGHT
  • WIDE SHOT – 15 KITES SEEN FROM WIND’S DIRECTION
  • DRONE TRACKING – HUNDREDS OF KITES IN MOTION

END 

SOUNDBITES OF SAME PEOPLE IN NATURAL (GERMAN)

Frits Sauvé, KITER, Nederland
Ab. the difference between kites in Asia and Europe:

VERSION 1: https://we.tl/t-c8YXqOLObV

VERSION 2: https://we.tl/t-QKDUeXQycT

LINKS

​​‘Program:

https://kitefriendsfanoe.dk/english/program-for-2025

The finding of the worlds oldest kite cave painting

https://www.subvision.net/sky/planetkite/asia/indonesia/sulawesi-muna_drachenfoundation.htm

Pictures of Indonesian cave with kite (free):
Nb. Year in article not correct.

https://www.taritravelindonesia.com/true-origin-kites/