Kites soar at a festival in Mason District Park

Brilliantly colored kites soared over Mason District Park Saturday at the Basant Kite Festival, an event that also featured music, food, and vendors selling elaborate jewelry and clothing.

The event was a smaller version of the annual Basant kite festivals held in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Nepal to welcome the spring season, said organizer Sadaf Shahid, founder of Muslim American Women Leadership Advancement.

In Asia, Basant events often feature kite fighting, but that sport is banned in Fairfax County, so the festival in Annandale was all about the joy of catching a breeze to get one’s kite airborne. By the end of the afternoon, quite a few of the kites were stuck in trees.

Shahid launched the Basant event to bring local South Asian communities together to spread a message of love and peace.

“In these hard times, with so much conflict, everyone is so stressed. It’s very sad what’s going on in the world,” said Shahid. Her goal is “to build brotherhood among us.”