The organizer of the Berkeley Kite Festival canceled the event because the city more than tripled the permit fee.
BERKELEY -- For more than 30 years, the last weekend of July was reserved for the Berkeley Kite Festival -- a free, annual event that drew thousands of spectators. Now, the festival has been canceled for budgetary reasons and organizers and the public aren't happy about it.
"I thought, if I'm going to try to make a living sharing my passion for kites ... then I needed to do something to give back to the community," he said. "It jumped from $10,000 to $45,000 so, 35,000 extra dollars is going to where, exactly? That's my question," said Erin Kakhadze from Pittsburg. She was upset that an event unique to Berkeley would end to save an amount of money that will barely be noticed in the city budget.
McAlister is hurt that the gift he has given for more than 30 years is now viewed as an expense rather than an asset to his community.
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