2024 Dan's Kite Fly Returns to the Hamptons Skies

If you frequent Sagg Main Beach, there may come a day when, around 4:45 in the afternoon while you’re lying on your blanket enjoying the waves, sand, wind, sea birds and sun, that, peering out from behind your sunglasses, you will see a kid in a bathing suit — maybe 8 years old — with his father launching a kite into the sky. Up there, it might be seen alongside another kite that was sent up earlier.

You might not think anything much of this; but, on one particular sunny afternoon each year (this year it will be Sunday, August 18) the kite will soon be joined by another, and then another, and another until about 5 p.m. Just as you were planning to go home, you will notice a big herd of kids, parents and grandparents suddenly launching more kites into the sky. There’s maybe a hundred of them up there, now. Some decked out as bats, others as eagles or airplanes or sailboats or huge boa constrictors. All up there wiggling about. What is this all about?

There will be lots of excitement and conversation going on at this beach at that hour. And now, suddenly, the legendary Jim Turner Band, which has attended almost every kite fly, will start to play in a marked off area in front of the dunes. And after that, a man with a bullhorn will stand up in front of a bridge table at the back of the beach and make an announcement.

“The contest will begin in 10 minutes,” he will say. “And if you are tapped on the shoulder sometime in the next half hour by a man or woman who says they are a judge at our Dan’s Papers Kite Fly, you will be a winner. Come to the control tower to claim your prize. This little table behind me is the control tower.”

Eleven prizes will be awared to the winners..

And so that is how, this year, on Sunday at 5:30 p.m., you will realize you are now in the middle of the annual Dan’s Papers Kite Fly — an event that begins at 5 p.m. and goes to 6:30 p.m. The Town of Southampton has given us the go-ahead to have the Kite Fly, just as they do every year for the last 53 years. This is a very popular event. At the kite fly now are grandparents who, years ago, brought their children to the event, who are now watching these same children, now full grown, enjoy competing in the kite fly with their own children.

There will be 11 winners all together. They will be those who have won the prize for the Highest Flying Kite, or the Most Beautiful Kite, the Smallest Kite, the Most Newsworthy Kite, the Scariest Kite, the Best Homemade Kite, the Oldest Kite Flyer, the Youngest Kite Flyer, the Biggest Kite Flyer, the Ugliest Kite Flyer and the Kite Flyer in the Best Costume.

There is no charge for attending this event, no charge for parking at the event (the town waives all parking fees for non-residents) and no charge for entering. No charity benefits from the kite fly. No registration form is to be filled out and submitted. It’s just the flying of kites, creating this great creative herd in the sky and the possibility of winning a prize.

Unexpected things sometimes happen at the Kite Fly. A clown may show up, or a magician. A face painter might show up. One year a group of hobbyists from Manhattan arrived and blew up gigantic exotic beach inflatables down by the water’s edge and then launched them into the surf. Great floating dinosaurs and dragons bounced around through the waves below the kites that year. Another year, people on horseback from a nearby ranch came to watch. It’s all just for fun.

Next year, bring your own kite, your kids, and if they have kids, them too.