Allen Ault, a co-founder and lead organizer of the Bel Air Kite Festival, was blessed with sunny skies, springtime temperatures and strong winds Saturday for his last time as festival chairman.
Ault called the event, which was the 10th annual kite festival, "fabulous."
"Great turnout, great day, great weather, great people, great kids," he said.
Ault, 79, started the festival in 2006 with friend and fellow kite enthusiast Paul Hines, of Churchville, and the support of Bel Air's then-town administrator, Chris Schlehr.
Schlehr retired from the town in 2013, and Mr. Hines died in 2007. Ault, who turns 80 in June, said the festival will continue under the leadership of Town of Bel Air Director of Administration Michael Krantz.
"I hate to do it, but I'm getting to advanced age, and I'm just trying to slow up and enjoy life, and I thought it was time for a younger person to take over some of the things I've been doing," Ault said.
Ault said he will continue with the festival as a volunteer. He is retired from the State Highway Administration, and he is a former boat-building instructor at Harford Community College.
He grew up in Western Maryland and came to Harford County at age 32 when he became the SHA's resident engineer assigned to the agency's Churchville shop.
Ault said he has been flying kites since he was 10 or 12 years old, when he made his own out of strips of wood and newspaper.
"For me personally, I go out, I put my kite up in the wind, and it's a very peaceful time for me," he said. "I consider it my wind, my sky, my kite."
The festival, which was held on the Rockfield Park baseball fields, started with about 300 to 400 people participating, and it has grown to more than 1,000 people. Ault estimated 1,500 to 1,600 people attended Saturday's festival, where the wind and bright skies were most conducive to kite flying.
The free event is sponsored by the Town of Bel Air and APG Federal Credit Union. The credit union provides the money for festival organizers to purchase the kites that are given away at the beginning of the event.
The Rockfield Park fields were crowded with adults and children making their kites soar, aided by a stiff wind. Kite strings frequently got tangled together, and the kite fliers had to stop and get each other sorted out.
Jeff King, a member of the Wings Over Washington Kite Club, served as emcee and played music for the crowd.
King said he has been the emcee for nine out of the past 10 festivals and called Saturday's event a "community fun fly," which is geared toward people who fly kites for fun, rather than sport.
"It's really you, the families, residents, the community, coming out, making a day of it," King said over the sound system, which was donated by the club.
Mafirat Rakhimdjanova, of Bel Air, watched her husband, teenage son and 4-year-old daughter fly their kites.
This year is the second kite festival for the family. Rakhimdjanova said her daughter, Sarvinoz, needed help flying her kite last year, but the girl smiled this year as she twirled a small kite decorated with Barbie figures.
"She heard, 'The kite festival,' and she was jumping," Rakhimdjanova said. "She was happy, she wanted to come here, and she's doing everything herself."
Her son, Javlonbek, 17, flew his own kite and helped her friend's son keep his kite in the air.
"I think it's better, bigger and more people," Javlonbek said of this year's festival. "I'm seeing more kites."
When asked to explain the experience of flying a kite, he said "it feels different – the wind...it's hard to describe."
Rakhimdjanova and her family are from Uzbekistan, where she said kite flying is a tradition. People make their own kites, and festivals are held there regularly.
"We have a special holiday," she said.
Organizers of the Bel Air festival had 500 kites, which were purchased from The Kite Loft in Ocean City, when the festival began at 10 a.m. Saturday, and all were gone by around noon, Krantz said.
"I'm going to make sure it happens and make sure it follows in the same trend and the same tradition that Allen Ault has always wanted it to be," Krantz said of taking on the leadership of the festival.
Krantz called Ault "a fantastic, fantastic gentleman."
"The event wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him, and the town will absolutely make sure that it continues," he said.
Ault's daughter, Becky Ault Magnani, who lives in Stewartstown, Pa., was helping her father with the festival Saturday. She said she plans to return as a volunteer if Krantz wishes.
"It's a great day for people in Bel Air and Harford County to get out and play," Magnani said.
Rachael Wilmoth, of Bel Air, took part in the festival for the first time. She tried to keep her kite straight as it was buffeted by the winds, and her 2-year-old son laughed as he sat in his stroller and tried to grab the streamers attached to the kite.
"It's a lot harder than it looks," Wilmoth said.
Delaney Curry, 12, of the Bel Air area, has six years of kite flying experience under her belt, but she was also struggling to keep her kite level as the winds ebbed and flowed.
She said she enjoys flying her kite at the beach, as well as during the Bel Air festival.
"I think it's a lot of fun to see different kinds of kites and how people fly them, and it's a lot of fun spending time with my family out here," Delaney said.
Megan Fitzgerald, of Abingdon, returned the giveaway kite she and her 4-year-old daughter, Eva, had been using.
Fitzgerald told organizers the family already has two kites at home.
"We had a ball," she told a volunteer. "We had a super time."
Fitzgerald said Eva is on the autism spectrum, and kite flying is very helpful for her.
"It's a sensory thing, her pulling in the kite and the kite pulling on her, feeling the wind in her face," she said.
Fitzgerald said Eva can have "tons of fun" with the kites at home.
"It's all about sharing, really," she said of returning the festival kite.