This past weekend, members of the Sierra Club and the Los Angeles community had the absolute joy of spending the day under wide-open skies and wind gusts at the 5th Annual Clockshop Kite Festival in beautiful Los Angeles State Historic Park. If you’ve never witnessed hundreds, maybe thousands, of kites painting the sky while the sounds of laughter, live music, and thoughtful conversation swirl around you, put this on your calendar for next year. It's more than just a festival; it's a vibrant, intentional celebration of land, airspace, creativity, and connection.
The Sierra Club was proud to support this event for the third year in a row through obtaining a $5,000 conservation grant to directly support Clockshop’s efforts. Their mission to bring the community together through culture, art, and land and air stewardship mirrors so much of what we value: celebrating the natural world and making these public spaces accessible to all.
We also hosted a Sierra Club table at the event, where we made kites from recycled materials and had countless meaningful conversations with festival-goers, many of whom came for the kites but stayed for the advocacy. It was inspiring to see how curious and engaged folks were about our work, from protecting urban green spaces to ensuring equitable access to nature for all Angelenos. Hopefully we also inspired some new volunteers!
One major conversation we kept coming back to was the proposed gondola project from the park to Dodger Stadium. Alongside Clockshop and other LA Parks Alliance members, we continue to oppose this project, which threatens to privatize access to public parklands and set a dangerous precedent for development in protected spaces. This festival was a timely and powerful reminder of what we could be investing in instead: joyful, community-led events that bring people together without extracting from the land or displacing local voices.
Kite flying may seem simple on the surface, a string, a breeze, a bit of lift, but it’s also the perfect metaphor for the kind of organizing and environmental work we’re trying to do. It takes patience, attention, collaboration, and the right conditions to soar. This event reminded me that when we align with purpose and community, we can lift not just kites, but also movements.
Here’s to more wind, more wonder, and more wins for public land and airspace, and the people who love it.
By Amanda Stemen, Central Group Parks Committee Chairperson
*Clockshop Kite Festival link: https://clockshop.org/project/clockshops-kite-festival/