For a weekend in September, Scheveningen beach is taken over by kites, big and small, during the International Kite Festival (Vliegerfestival). In 2026, the festival took place on 26 and 27 September, and it gathered thousands of kite enthusiasts.
The weather was lovely, although a bit more wind would have helped. When we arrived there, almost all the kites were in the air and the view was spectacular, especially with the Pier in the distance. After a while, the wind dropped and many of the kites came down and never went back up, but all the attention shifted to the Megabite, a large kite that requires a team of experienced people and a good amount of wind to fly. It’s 66 metres long and 25 metres wide, and the team managed to lift it off the ground, although not very high and only for a short time. It was a great spectacle nonetheless, as adults and kids cheered every time the team tried to get it up in the air, and everyone had fun during the entire process.
The Megabite was made in 1995 by the New Zealand kite maker Peter Lynn, who is famous for his giant kites, and in 1997 was recognised by the Guinness World Records as the largest kite in the world, after it stayed in the air for more than 20 minutes without touching the ground at the Bristol International Kite Festival (the record has since gone to an even bigger kite, also made by Peter Lynn). It was later bought by Gerard van der Loo, a kite pioneer from The Hague, and today it’s such a regular sight in Scheveningen that the organisers call flying it almost a tradition. Its shape is based on the trilobite, a prehistoric sea creature, which is why it looks more like a huge animal resting on the sand than a kite when there isn’t enough wind to lift it.
A kite festival with a long history
The kite festival in Scheveningen started in the early 1980s, as a small event organised by local kite enthusiasts who wanted to share their hobby. One of the key people behind it was the same Gerard van der Loo, who had a kite shop in The Hague and founded the Holland Kite Team at the end of the 1970s, and who organised the kite events that later became the well-known Scheveningen kite festival. Over the years, the festival grew into the largest international kite event in the Netherlands, and it usually brings thousands of visitors to the beach.
This year’s edition was a bit special, because the festival hadn’t taken place for two years while the boulevard was being renovated and there simply wasn’t enough room on the beach. So 2026 was the first time since 2023 that the kites came back to Scheveningen, and the organisers were happy to say that they finally had enough space again.
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What you can see at the Scheveningen Kite Festival
The festival has no competition. The idea is simply to fill the sky with kites, and this year the organisers expected between 100 and 200 kite flyers from the Netherlands and abroad. Here you can see all kinds of kite flying, and you can bring your own as well.
For children there are workshops where they can make and decorate their own kite. What you get to see depends a lot on the wind, as we found out, and according to the organisers the perfect festival day has a light sea breeze, some sunshine and a few clouds.
Practical information for next year’s festival
The festival usually takes place on a weekend in the second half of September, on the beach just south of De Pier (to the left of the pier when you’re facing the sea). In 2026 it ran from 11:00 to 17:00 on both days, entrance was free and the festival area was wheelchair accessible.
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