It’s an empowering feeling, launching a kite and keeping it aloft. There’s your kite, hundreds of feet away, tugging and swooping with the air currents, and you’re in control. Awesome.

Colorful kites brightened the gray sky Saturday at the Bug Light Kite Festival in South Portland, at Bug Light Park, where the wind is plentiful and the sky uncluttered by power lines.

Additional Photos

Four-year-old Erica Roussel and her mom, Lanelle Roussel, of Falmouth, assemble a box kite at the Bug Light Kite Festival Saturday in South Portland. Photos byJill Brady/Staff Photographer

Sara Watkins, 9, center, of Plaistow, N.H., pulls a kite bol to the finish line, closely followed by 11-year-old Jacob Marcous, left, of Norway.

Cori Farnham, 10, of North Yarmouth tries to put her kite in the air.

Paul Sames, 4, of South Portland has some fun chasing bubbles.

Visitors wait for the rare opportunity to visit the lighthouse.

Allyson Molloy, 13, of Portland helps her cousin, Sarah Sweeney, 6, of Massachusetts, launch her butterfly kite.

Organized by the South Portland Historical Society, the day included races, a candy drop, barbecue eats, and a special treat: The lighthouse was open (it almost never is) for visitors’ perusal.

Two area kite clubs — the Nor’easters Kite Club and Kites Over New England (KONE) — were on hand to offer kite demonstrations, a kite hospital for kite assembly and repairs, and a “How to Fly a Kite” workshop.

Like we said: awesome.

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