Kites on Ice Festival Set to Soar Again in Buffalo

(KNSI) – A year after warm weather led to its cancelation, Kites on Ice is back in Buffalo on February 8th from 11:00 to 3:00.

Sue Olmscheid is the director of the local chamber of commerce and tourism bureau. She is working hard to promote the event and get it back on people’s radars. She believes it is an easy sell. Olmscheid says just being there is a good time.

“What’s nice about the event, even for older people who maybe can’t get out there, somebody maybe who…just access to the lake is difficult, is that these kites are so big, if you can just even find a parking spot and just enjoy the sight for a while, it’s always changing, and the kiters will continue to put up more kites throughout the day.”

Olmscheid welcomes snowmobilers and ice fishermen, but festival weekend is the only weekend this time of year when the city feels like summer. Many businesses are open part-time in the winter but will run normal hours on the 8th.

Olmscheid expects the stores to be busy as the festival is designed to be friendly to guests and families. “Short of buying any food…that’s really all you would have to bring any money for, and the rest is all free. So, free kites for kids are given out by our Rotary. The first 400-450 kids will have kites of their own. Dog sled rides are free.”

There will also be a beer garden and beverage tent. Other activities include cornhole, a live DJ, and a snow painting, plus a new component. Olmscheid is looking forward to the first-ever festival pond hockey tournament.

Fun is the name of the game for its debut. “We’re just doing multi-gender beer League, more or less, so not real competitive. We had more people just wanting to play for fun and for bragging rights and whatever, against each other and that kind of thing. So, we’ll start out with just that. And if we can get it to grow, then yes, I think we would have some age brackets.”

Olmscheid hopes that future versions will feature up to three days’ worth of puck action.

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