Festival Of The Winds returns to Bondi Beach on 13 September 2026, filling the park and sky with kites, music, workshops and community activity.
There are few places in Sydney where the wind feels quite so much a part of the landscape as Bondi.
It comes in from the Pacific, crosses the sand and moves through the park above the beach, carrying the sounds of swimmers, walkers and passing conversations with it. On most days it is simply part of Bondi's character. Once a year, however, the wind becomes the reason to look upwards.
On Sunday 13 September, Festival Of The Winds returns to Bondi Park for its annual celebration of kite flying, making and community. From 11am to 4pm, the beach and park become a meeting place for professional kite flyers, families, artists, musicians and curious passers-by, with kites of all shapes and sizes rising above one of Sydney's most recognisable stretches of coast.
The event is free and open to all ages, and is presented by Waverley Council alongside the Australian Kite Flying Society.
The attraction is straightforward. Come to Bondi, find a patch of grass or sand, and watch the sky change.
But the festival is about more than the kites themselves.
It is a day built around the relationship between the beach, the wind and the people who gather to enjoy both.
Festival Of The Winds Finds Its Natural Home At Bondi
Bondi is already a place where people spend time outdoors.
The promenade, beach and park form a kind of open-air living room for the eastern suburbs, particularly on a clear spring day. Surfers move through the water, runners follow the coastline and people settle onto the grass with coffee, food or a book.
Festival Of The Winds works because it does not need to transform that landscape completely.
Instead, it adds another layer.
The first signs are likely to be above eye level. A flash of colour against the blue, a long-tailed kite drifting across the horizon, or one of the larger creations moving slowly on the wind.
Professional kite flyers and makers gather for the occasion, bringing creations that demonstrate the variety of forms the simple idea of a kite can take.
Some are delicate and intricate. Others are deliberately oversized and theatrical.
From the ground, they become part of the Bondi skyline.
For visitors, there is no need to understand the technical side of kite flying to appreciate the spectacle. The appeal is instinctive. Something has left the ground and is moving freely above the beach.
A Festival Shaped By The Wind
The wind is an unpredictable collaborator.
That gives kite festivals a quality that is different from many other outdoor events. A performance on a stage follows a schedule, but the sky has its own timing.
Kites dip, rise and pull against their lines. Some hover almost motionless before suddenly travelling across the sky. Others seem to dance as the wind changes direction.
That uncertainty is part of the pleasure.
At Festival Of The Winds, kite flying sits alongside music, dance, creative activities and food stalls, creating a day where visitors can move between the beach, Bondi Park and Bondi Pavilion rather than remaining in one place.
The program begins at 11am with a Welcome to Country by the Gujaga Foundation, followed shortly afterwards by Suwitra Jaya Gamelan.
From there, the main stage moves through an eclectic afternoon of music and performance, including Gagliardes, Bandaluzia Flamenco, The Polynesian Dance Crew, Lemonise and Mister OTT.
Mayor Will Nemesh is scheduled to speak at 3pm.
The variety is deliberate. The festival is not simply an afternoon of watching kites. It is a broader community gathering, with the sky providing the visual thread connecting everything around it.
Festival Of The Winds Brings Music Into The Park
The relationship between the airborne spectacle and the music gives the festival much of its character.
At the main stage, performances unfold throughout the afternoon, while the forecourt offers another program of local music, dance and community performances.
Bondi Brass opens the forecourt program at 11am, followed by Black Joak Morris and the Rose Bay Secondary College Music Ensemble. The Bondi Beach Recorder Ensemble and Bondi Beach Public School Choir add a distinctly local note, while later performances bring tap, Latin dance and other forms of movement into the afternoon.
Feel Free Dance Studio leads a Salsa and Latin Fusion Show at 1.50pm, followed later by a Latin Dance Workshop and an all-in dance social.
It creates a different kind of festival soundtrack.
The sound of music carries across the park while the wind continues to move overhead. Visitors can stop for a performance, wander towards the beach, watch the kites for a while and return to the music later.
Nothing requires the entire day to be experienced in one particular order.
Creative Activities At Bondi Pavilion
Away from the main stages, Bondi Pavilion becomes part of the festival's creative landscape.
The Courtyard Creative Zone runs from 11am to 4pm, offering a collection of activities that encourage visitors to participate rather than simply watch.
An Eastside Radio DJ provides music through the zone, while visitors can try Gallery Origami Craft at the Bondi Pavilion Art Gallery and circus skills outside the High Tide Room.
There are games on the grass, a film screening at Yalagang and a clay studio workshop at Bondi Pavilion.
Face painting is available in the High Tide Room, while the Pavilion's art spaces also host the ARTEXPRESS Exhibition and the 2026-in-2026 Postcard Colouring activity in the Story Room.
These smaller activities help give the festival a different pace from the spectacle on the beach.
A child may spend part of the afternoon watching a large kite overhead, then move indoors to make something with their hands. Adults can wander through the gallery or sit nearby while the next performance begins.
The day becomes less about seeing everything and more about allowing the surroundings to determine where you go next.
Festival Of The Winds For Families And Curious Visitors
The festival has always had an accessible quality because its central attraction requires no special knowledge.
A kite in the sky can be understood by almost anyone.
For families, the day includes rides, a petting zoo, kite stalls and roaming performers, as well as Edgee kite workshops in the park. Food stalls provide another reason to stay rather than treating the festival as a brief stop on a Bondi walk.
The activities also make it possible for different generations to enjoy the day in different ways.
Children can concentrate on the rides, workshops or animals. Older visitors might be more interested in the craftsmanship of the kites or the performances. Others may simply want to sit on the grass and watch the sky.
That broad appeal is part of what has allowed Festival Of The Winds to become a recurring fixture on Sydney's spring calendar.
It belongs to the kind of public event where participation does not have to be defined.
You can be deeply involved or simply passing through.
The View From Bondi Park
There is a particular pleasure in watching a familiar Sydney landscape become temporarily unfamiliar.
Bondi Beach is photographed constantly, yet the addition of dozens of kites changes its proportions.
The horizon remains the same, but the space above it becomes animated.
The kites provide points of colour against the sky, sometimes clustered together and sometimes separated by large areas of blue. Their movement draws attention upwards, away from the usual line of sight towards the water.
For visitors who know Bondi well, it is a reminder that the beach can still offer surprises.
For those arriving from elsewhere in Sydney, the festival provides an opportunity to experience Bondi as a community space rather than simply as a landmark.
The park, pavilion and beach operate together for the day, connected by pedestrians moving between them.
There is no grand boundary between the festival and the surrounding neighbourhood. The event occupies the landscape rather than replacing it.
A Spring Sunday By The Sea
September brings a particular quality to Sydney's coastline.
Winter has loosened its grip, but summer crowds have not yet arrived in full force. The light can be sharp and clear, while the ocean still carries the coolness of the season that has just passed.
It is a fitting time for a kite festival.
The weather will, as always, influence the day. Wind is essential to the event, and the atmosphere of the festival depends on the same coastal conditions that make Bondi such a distinctive place.
Visitors are therefore not simply attending an organised program. They are spending a spring Sunday in a landscape shaped by the Pacific.
That is perhaps why the festival feels less like an event imposed upon Bondi and more like an extension of the beach itself.
Festival Of The Winds Event Details
Festival Of The Winds takes place on Sunday 13 September 2026 at Bondi Park and Bondi Pavilion.
The festival runs from 11am to 4pm and entry is free.
The main program includes music, dance and live performances, while the Courtyard Creative Zone offers arts, crafts and family activities. In the park, visitors can find kite workshops, rides, a petting zoo, food stalls, kite stalls and roaming performers.
The event is presented by Waverley Council alongside the Australian Kite Flying Society.
Accessibility information provided by Bondi Pavilion includes accessible toilets.
Festival Of The Winds
Sunday 13 September 2026
11am to 4pm
Bondi Park
Bondi Beach, Sydney
Free entry
Presented by Waverley Council with the Australian Kite Flying Society.
When The Kites Begin To Come Down
Eventually, the lines are wound back in.
The performances finish, the food stalls begin to close and the crowds gradually disperse through the streets surrounding Bondi Beach. The park becomes quieter, and the sky returns to its ordinary September appearance.
Yet the appeal of Festival Of The Winds lies partly in that temporary transformation.
For a few hours, the wind is no longer simply something to feel on your face as you walk along the beach. It becomes visible.
It lifts fabric and paper, carries colour above the sand and gives the afternoon a sense of movement that cannot be entirely controlled.
That is what makes the festival feel particularly suited to Bondi.
The beach has always been a place where Sydney meets the elements. On this Sunday in September, the wind simply becomes easier to see.
And when the last kites disappear from the sky, Bondi returns to itself, with the Pacific beyond it and the breeze moving quietly through the park.