A kite flying over the ocean at sunset, Long Beach, Washington

Third week of August

The Washington State International Kite Festival

A week of kites over Long Beach, and the busiest week of the year on the peninsula.

The Washington State International Kite Festival runs for a week each August on the beach at Long Beach, five minutes north of us. It has been going since 1981 and is one of the largest kite festivals in the world.

If you are coming for it, book early. If you are not, we would rather you knew it was happening, because the whole peninsula fills.

What actually happens

  • Competition flying. Precision and ballet events, flown individually and in teams.
  • Mass ascensions, where everyone on the beach puts a kite up at once.
  • Night flying, with lit kites over the dunes.
  • Kite-making workshops, and plenty of people who will happily explain their kite to you.

Most of it is free to watch. You stand on the beach or the boardwalk and look up.

Noah Kite at Sou’wester Lodge

Flying your own

You do not need to be in the festival to fly a kite here. Long Beach has reliable onshore wind and twenty-eight miles of sand, which is the reason the festival exists at all.

Kite shops in town will sell you something that flies and tell you where to stand.

The World Kite Museum

Long Beach has a kite museum, open year-round, with a collection covering kite history from across the world. It is a good hour on a wet day and it is five minutes from us.

Booking around it

Festival week is the hardest week of the year to find a bed on this peninsula. Lodging across all the towns books out months ahead, not weeks. The same is true of Rod Run to the End of the World in September.

If you want to be here that week, book as far ahead as you can. If you would rather have the beach to yourself, come in late September or May.

Where to stay

We are in Seaview, ten minutes from Cape Disappointment and five from the beach. You can stay in a restored vintage travel trailer, a 1950s cabin, a suite in the historic 1892 lodge, or bring a tent or RV to one of our camping and RV spaces.

See all lodgings

More in our guide to things to do on the Long Beach Peninsula.

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