Kite Flying and People Watching

The Kite Festival. Typical Austin, Texas event. Hundreds of people fill Zilker Park starting early in the morning and staying till dusk flying kites, hanging out with family and friends, relaxing, and enjoying a beautiful Sunday ouside free from a TV or work.

What more could you ask for, really.

 

Earlier in the morning when I first arrived, there were fewer people than shown in the picture above. A lot less actually. It was more family oriented in the morning. Young families were showing up with batman and barbie kites probably purchased at a local drug store. As the well-known characters would soar into the sky and become a part of the Austin skyline, kids would run and make the kites run through the air while the parents sat back, relaxed, enjoying the sight of happy children. As the day got shorter and more people literally flocked the park, the moms began to gather the kids, bringing them back to common ground and the dads usually got up and flew the kites with their kids while the moms sat in her chair or on a blanket taking pictures and chatting up a storm amongst eachother.

 

I noticed as the morning dragged on and it grew more towards lunch time and families (specifically the ones I was sitting around), unpacked their coolers and the women started serving lunch, more and more college-age students began to congregate on the field. Some groups of girls began to tan on a towel in the grass while the guys they were with flew the kites. Then, there were other groups of girls who were absolutely into flying kites and would run around to keep up with the boys. They would send theirs up into the air and run around trying to keep it afloat. The differences between the way women acted were apparent. The activities participated in by the women were all very similar, yet all very different because of the way they interacted. The women with families interacted with their families and friends but the idea of a family added a new element to that of the college-aged kids who came and interacted with just their friends. They only had themselves to worry about and the mothers and fathers of the families had kids to also keep an eye on in the massive crowd. Both the men and women from both age groups acted the same in a general sense; the women chatted amongst themselves and soaked in the sun, and the men flew kites always and socialized with their friends as well, sometimes throwing a football.