The Hunt Museum organised a county and city-wide Kite Power Festival as part of its exhibition to highlight the power of wind as an energy resource.
The purpose of the festival was to inspire Creativity, Community, Recycling and Clean Energy Advocacy.
The museum called on Kite enthusiasts and novices to get creative with recyclable materials and paint the sky of Limerick and Shannon with vibrant kites this February 2024.
The Kite Power Festival took the Hunt Museum’s Climate Change exhibition “Night’s Candles are Burnt Out: Climate, Culture, Change & Community”, outside its walls and onto the streets and hills of Limerick as it showcased the power of wind through art, culture and a fun community event.
In a visually captivating and eco-friendly manner, this unique family experience, sponsored by The Shannon Airport Group in collaboration with the Limerick.ie Festivals scheme, encouraged participants to reuse their Christmas wrapping paper and tinsel and give it new life in the skies powered by the abundant wind in the Mid-West.
To help people get involved, Lumen Street Theatre hosted a series of Kite Making Workshops across Limerick City and County. Some Men’s Shed groups also hosted their own kite-making days.
After the festival, Kites were lent to The Hunt Museum for a post-Festival exhibition.
The project demonstrated how young people can be encouraged to learn about environmental issues in a positive and family-friendly fun way, while also demonstrating the positives of community involvement.
What advantages are there to using wind energy?
- Wind power is a clean and renewable energy source.
- Wind turbines harness energy from the wind using mechanical power to spin a generator and create electricity.
- Not only is wind an abundant and inexhaustible resource, but it also provides electricity without burning any fuel or polluting the air.
- Wind power benefits local communities as there are programmes which invest in local projects where wind farms are located
What are some of the challenges to using wind energy?
Local communities don’t always welcome the addition of wind turbines and they complain about the impact on the landscape and the noise
Wind is weather-dependent
Wind farms can impact on the local wildlife
Installation can be challenging as the locations of wind farms are often remote and transporting the materials can be difficult due to a lack of road infrastructure
Learn more…
You can learn more about how wind energy will help Ireland in its fight against climate change here:
https://windenergyireland.com/about-wind/climate-change-and-wind-energy
