Go fly a kite in Minneapolis!

Tomorrow, starting at noon, the iced-over surface of Lake Harriet in Minneapolis will be dotted with dozens of well-bundled Happy Mutants, out for the annual Winter Kite Festival. You can bring a kite, or buy one on site. Expect everything from the classic triangle, to house-sized monstrosities which look disconcertingly like PedoBear. There's also ice fishing, snow-shoeing, a marshmallow roast, and horse-drawn carriage rides. Finally, to answer the question all non-Minnesotans are currently asking themselves: The temperature will be -5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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dross1260

walkin’ the perimeter or across? freaked me out.
- manicbassman
  
  out on the middle of the lake… don’t worry, they check the thickness for safety first before letting the public out on it…
Art Carnage

The “classic” kite is the diamond, not the triangle. Is it that hard to get basic geometric shapes right?

Diamond kites can be single-line or dual-line, but delta (triangular) kites, such as the Hawaiian Spinoff, are almost always of the more advanced dual-line variety.
museincognito

Hey der, Minnesotan. For seriously, how fun! Kites go with anything, really, but snowshoes and ice fishing and gooey marshmellows and carriage rides? OMG. And, with just the right amount of layering, the weather couldn’t be more perfect. It’s a “dry” cold…. ;)
Chentzilla

The brain turns “ice fishing” into “ice fisting” when it’s next to the pedobear.
dr

Frolicking on the ice is one of the things I miss most from my years in Wisconsin and Minnesota. On the other hand, the midday temperature has been around 75F here in Honolulu.
zENithFisHstiX

The Winter Kite Festival is a hoot, and almost enough to make me wish I still lived a block from the bandshell. There’s something intrinsically sweet about flying a kite from the frozen surface of a lake, especially on a cold, sunny day – it’s like stepping into a Currier and Ives scene.

Still, tomorrow it’ll be 55 degrees warmer here in SoCal. And we’re complaining about the chill.
artaxerxes

Kites are terrific fun! I absolutely love them.

At Crissy Field and the Marina Green in San Francisco- right near the mouth of the Golden Gate, where there are often winds perfect for kite-launching and flying – it’s not uncommon to see adults and kids flying kites and having a ball. I’m glad that kite flying hasn’t gone out of style. I hope that kids are still making their own kites as well.

My only gripe: adults who can’t let go of the kite to allow the kids the thrill of flying it. I certainly don’t remember that from my 70s childhood, but I see it frequently now.* Get over your damn immature adult self and let your kid have the fun, dammit! If you want to join in the fun and be a good parent, help your kid make his or her own kite.

* There’s a good mini-story about adult kite-hogging in one of the Mary Poppins books, which are extraordinary by the way. P.L. Travers was into mythology and astronomy and Djerassi. Fantastic books.