SOUTH PORTLAND — Tito Drice and his 6-year old daughter, Josera, walked hand-in-hand toward Bug Light on Saturday, a colorful paper parrot draped over Tito’s right shoulder.

Drice, 33, grew up flying kites over the streets of his native Haiti.

Brendan Bernard of Cumberland holds the string to his son Henry’s kite during the 6th annual Bug Light Kite Festival on Saturday.

Reese Bethel, 3, of Falmouth looks as her father, George, tries to untangle her kite’s line from those of a few other kites during the Bug Light Kite Festival on Saturday. Photos by Gabe Souza/Staff Photographer

Felix Correia, 5, of South Portland pulls a “bol kite” – kind of like a parachute with vents – during a race. Bol kites’ greater wind resistance makes running more difficult.

“It was something we did every single day in the summer,” said Drice, who came to the United States in 2002.

He hasn’t lost his touch.

With a quick flick of the wrist and release of line, Josera’s parrot soared into the sky to join hundreds of other kites flapping in the breeze at the 6th annual Bug Light Kite Festival.

Birds, mammals of all shapes and sizes, and cartoon characters bobbed, darted, and dived over the more than 1,000 people that huddled on the cramped green lawn.

“We could use a little better weather,” said Tony Otis, of the Nor’Easters Kite Club, a group that helps organize the event.

“But we’ll make it work. The whole point is to do something that’s fun and that people might not normally do.”

According to Otis, 1,900 people RSVP’d to the event on Facebook. With a line of vehicles and pedestrians stretching back to Southern Maine Community College, it appeared most of them came – wearing smiles.

“Kites are just fun,” said John Martin of Waterford, also a member of the Nor’Easters. “How seriously can you take yourself when you’re flying a kite?”

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