Clockshop’s 5th Annual ‘Community & Unity People’s Kite Festival’

Join Clockshop for our 5th Annual Community & Unity People’s Kite Festival. Taking place at Los Angeles State Historic Park on Saturday, May 17, 2025 from 2:00–6:00 PM. 

This all-ages, family-friendly cultural festival brings together diverse communities in Los Angeles through the art of kites and a day of joyful connection in this important public green space. Clockshop invites attendees to participate in free arts workshops, enjoy live music, and meet local community organizations to learn about their work in the nearby neighborhoods. The Kite Festival is designed as a celebration to honor the communities surrounding Los Angeles State Historic Park that fought for and steward this public parkland, recognizing their resilience, cultural histories, and aspirations.

This year’s festival is organized around the theme Entangled in Community. As we mark five years of the People’s Kite Festival at Los Angeles State Historic Park, we celebrate the relationships that emerge on and around public land: from the conversations sparked between strangers while untangling kite strings, to the vast web of community relationships that created and sustains this park. 

As part of our annual kite commission program, our 2025 artist, Maria Maea, will design and create two unique kites that draw upon the connective threads between Mexican and Samoan cultural traditions, adapting the emblem of the Lau Lupe bird in a woven sculptural form. 

For the second year in a row, a kite competition will take place, inviting attendees to compete for the best handmade kite, judged by kite masters.

Clockshop encourages attendees to make their own kites or visit the ‘eco-friendly kite options’ section here for suggestions on where to purchase or make kites ahead of the event. Additionally, we will offer a Kite-Making Station with a limited number of donation-based kites for attendees to assemble, decorate, and fly on a first-come, first-served basis. 

This event is free and open to the public. Clockshop suggests a $5 donation to support our free public programming and artist commissions.

ARTS WORKSHOPS
Orizome Paper Dyeing with Hiromi Paper
Come experience the Japanese dyeing technique, orizome, and create a one-of-a-kind colorful sheet of paper to take home! This simple and fun dyeing method begins with folding a piece of special paper into geometric shapes such as triangles or squares. The folded paper is then dipped into multiple colors of ink. After dipping every corner of the paper into the dye, a beautiful pattern will unfold.

Knot Exploration with Eugene Ahn
Learn about ropework, the tactile language that enables us to fly kites, catch fish, connect objects, make our surroundings safer, and so much more. Facilitator Eugene Ahn presents an interactive, hands-on, play-centered workshop that will guide you to a new knowledge and love of tying knots. Learn and practice tying knots that you’ll find use for every day! Participants will have an opportunity to contribute their own ropework ideas to a group project at the workshop site, and are invited to take home their own practice rope.

KITE ARTIST
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Maria Maea (b. 1988, Long Beach, California) is a multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, installation, performance, film, and sound. Maea deepens her connection to land, somatic memory, and ancestry through artworks that act as a residue of her lived experiences as a first-generation Angeleno of Samoan and Mexican heritage. Using repurposed objects, living and dead palm fronds and other organic matter, concrete, and rebar, she builds film set-like sculptures that offer dimensions of multigenerational duration and nonlinear narrative-making. Maea’s work has been exhibited or performed at Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles (2024); the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2023); Lisson Gallery, New York (2023); Murmurs, Los Angeles (2023, 2022); and more. She was an artist-in-residence at the Palm Springs Art Museum (2022) and is a recipient of the Artadia Award and the Mohn Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND) grant.

ACCESSIBILITY

Arrival
Los Angeles State Historic Park is located at 1245 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012, directly adjacent to Chinatown and the Metro Gold Line. The park is located just 1 mile away from Los Angeles Union Station, making it accessible from several Metro routes. We will offer ample bike parking, and highly encourage the bike-riding public to join, either by biking independently or setting up group-rides to the park. Otherwise, we ask attendees to prioritize public transportation, rideshare, biking, or carpooling.

Parking
Parking at Los Angeles State Historic Park is extremely limited. There are two paid parking options at the park, both of which are on a first-come, first-served basis: the Main Parking Lot (1543 N. Spring Street, Los Angeles, CA 90012) and overflow lots operated by a third-party vendor for a flat fee of $20. Please consider reserving these spots for families with young children and those with limited mobility. If you are able-bodied and are not accompanying young children, consider using street parking or, better, public transportation. If parking on the street, please avoid street parking to the South and East of N. Main Street; this is a dense residential area and street parking needs to be reserved for residents.

Restrooms
Several portapotties will be available on site. The park’s main restrooms will be unavailable for the duration of the festival.

SUPPORT
This event is made possible by our ongoing partnership with California State Parks, our event sponsors, programming partners, Clockshop Circle donors, and the generous support of our broader community.

Sponsors
City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs
Sieroty Company
Beth and David Meltzer
Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation
LA City Councilmember Eunissess Hernandez (CD-1)
Sierra Club
American Business Bank

Partners
California State Parks
LA Parks Alliance
LA River State Parks Partners
Arts District Community Council