BROOKLYN, NY — The Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy (Conservancy) is proud to announce the kickoff event of the 2018 Spring and Summer programming season with the inaugural “Lift Off: A Waterfront Kite Festival” on Saturday, May 5, 2018. This FREE family-friendly event on Pier 1 of Brooklyn Bridge Park offers all ages the opportunity to watch their kites soar above the Manhattan skyline and enjoy special activities exploring the science of flight. The event will emphasize S.T.E.A.M (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) concepts and outdoor adventures. The Pier 1 Harbor View Lawn will be open for anyone to bring their own kites to fly. New kites will also be sold at the event. Live DJs playing music, stilt walkers, jugglers, and a large-scale bubble show featuring giant bubbles large enough to put kids inside of make for a fun filled afternoon. 

“Lift Off: A Waterfront Kite Festival” is the first of over 500 free and low-cost events that the Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy presents every season to park-goers. The Conservancy offers visitors the opportunity to enjoy a variety of free cultural, educational, and recreational events, as well as opportunities to volunteer and support this world-class waterfront park. 

“Lift Off: A Waterfront Kite Festival is an opportunity for visitors to experience the park in a completely new way. Between kayaking and fitness classes, our programming regularly covers land and sea; but at this kite festival, we want visitors to look above and take to the sky,” said Nancy Webster, Executive Director for Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy. “We are thrilled that this unique experience opens up our 2018 programming season in the park.” 


                                                       Photo: Etienne Frossard

Examples of activities: 
**Note: activities may change. Event has no rain date **

• Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy’s own Environmental Education Center will host a DIY pinwheel station where visitors can build and decorate pinwheels to see the wind in action.
• The Brooklyn Robot Foundry will host classes where attendees can use craft materials to build parachutes and mini light-up LED passengers to put inside the parachutes. Wind tunnels will also be set up so that builders can test out their parachutes and learn about lift and drag.
• Genspace, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting science literacy through public access to biotechnology, will sample the air's environment using petri dishes attached to kites in order to find out what inhabits the air that we breathe.
• Nory will make air kites to teach how circulating air can make objects move and will bring DIY motorized contraptions that are relevant to flight/moving air, such as a robotic air propeller. Nory will also show children how to put together a simple circuit, and teach the functionality of each part of the circuit.
• Private Picassos  will host a table where visitors can create their own rockets. Not only will these rockets each have their own unique design, Private Picassos will help make them fly through the air.
• SPARK! Join SPARK by Brooklyn Children's Museum to soak up the sun and make a colorful hand kite from a variety of textiles that will leap, twirl, and fly into spring! Learn about Spark’s early childhood classes and fun drop-in play hours, and get a discount admission coupon for your next visit.
• STEM Kids NYC is an education company that bridges the gap between the current curriculum in schools and the immediate need for schools to prepare students for future STEM opportunities. Join this organization as they take a basic lunch bag and turn it into a kite that you can fly at the festival.

DATE, TIME AND LOCATION 
Saturday, May 5, 2018 
Pier 1 Harbor View Lawn, Brooklyn Bridge Park (For Google Map Directions, click link) 
12:00 - 2:30 PM 
Price: FREE 

ABOUT BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK CONSERVANCY 
Brooklyn Bridge Park Conservancy has worked for over 30 years to bring Brooklyn Bridge Park to life. We started out as grassroots advocates, bringing together residents, government, and local supporters to transform an abandoned waterfront into the park you see today. Now an essential supporter, the Conservancy works in partnership with Brooklyn Bridge Park to ensure that the Park reaches its full potential as a dynamic and vibrant public space for all of Brooklyn, New York City, and beyond. With your help, the Conservancy produces diverse and innovative programming for Park visitors and cultivates volunteer and philanthropic support of this special place on the Brooklyn waterfront. Since 2000, more than 1,600,000 visitors have enjoyed the Conservancy’s free, public programs in Brooklyn Bridge Park. 

ABOUT BROOKLYN BRIDGE PARK 
Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP) is the not-for-profit entity responsible for the planning, construction, maintenance and operation of Brooklyn Bridge Park, an 85-acre sustainable waterfront park spanning 1.3 miles along Brooklyn’s East River shoreline. As steward of the Park, BBP has transformed this previously deteriorated stretch of waterfront into a world-class park where the public can gather, play, relax and enjoy sweeping views of New York Harbor. The self-sustaining park was designed by the award-winning firm of Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, Inc. and features expansive lawns, rolling hills, waterfront promenades, innovative playgrounds, a greenway, sports facilities and the popular Jane’s Carousel. Brooklyn Bridge Park is a signature public investment for the 21st Century and will be an enduring legacy for the communities, elected officials and public servants who made it happen. For more information, please visit brooklynbridgepark.org. 

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