Participants enjoy Kitty Hawk Kites’ Outer Banks Kite Festival at Jockey’s Ridge State Park on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. The kite festival took place Sept. 13-14 and brought in “some of the nation’s best kite fliers,” according to the Kitty Hawk Kites website. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
By Corinne Saunders
NAGS HEAD — Saturday was brimming with activity. Events took place across the Outer Banks, including a car show, a celebration of local watermen, a kite festival, a gay pride festival and a celebration of local history leading to the creation of Jockey’s Ridge State Park.
The two-day Day at the Docks festival on Hatteras Island and the two-day Kitty Hawk Kites’ Outer Banks Kite Festival in Nags Head concluded on Saturday, Sept. 14, while the weeklong OBX Pridefest concluded Sunday.
The one-day Sumospeed Beach Bash at the Soundside Event Site in Nags Head took place Saturday afternoon, as did Dune Days at Jockey’s Ridge State Park.
The annual Dune Days celebrates the day the late Carolista Baum famously stopped a bulldozer from flattening the sand dunes to make way for development on Aug. 15, 1973, and also recognizes Baum’s Aug. 30 birthday.
“The last three years, it was literally like extreme heat for the event, and so we wanted to move it to September,” Jockey’s Ridge State Park Joy Greenwood said.
The Friends of Jockey’s Ridge, a nonprofit that supports the park, held its open board meeting and membership event Saturday, then co-ran a free sandcastle contest with park rangers.
Dune Days also featured “dueling dinosaurs,” food for purchase, free cake and a park ranger-led dune hike, according to distributed event information.
Greenwood was especially enthusiastic about the five families that participated in the free sandcastle event. She said she hopes to grow the event in coming years, as it provides what she sees as a much-needed device-free outlet for kids’ “imagination, creativity.”
“I think the parents were just as excited about being participants as the kids were,” said Ann-Cabell Baum, Carolista Baum’s daughter and vice chair of the Friends group.
The Outer Banks Kite Festival, meanwhile, ran Sept. 13-14 and brought in “some of the nation’s best kite fliers,” according to the Kitty Hawk Kites website.
Jockey’s Ridge State Park Ranger Austin Paul (kneeling) high-fives one of the “engineers” who competed with his family in the inaugural free sandcastle competition held Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024, as part of the Dune Days park event. Joy Greenwood, park superintendent (center left) is next in line for a high-five, while Lauren Nelson (far left), a Friends of Jockey’s Ridge board member, carries the prizes. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
The Sumospeed Beach Bash returned for its fifth year, with hundreds of car show entrants competing for trophies awarded to the top 50 spots, at the Soundside Event Site in Nags Head on Saturday, Sept. 14. (Photo by Anthony Leone)
The vendor village set up at Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo for the weeklong OBX Pridefest is seen on Saturday, Sept. 14, 2024. (Photo by Anthony Leone)
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