People gathered in Santa Maria for the Free Family Kite Festival

SANTA MARIA, Calif. -- The Free Family Kite Festival brought hundreds of people from up and down the coast to Santa Maria Rotary Centennial Park on Sunday.

The Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum and Santa Maria Parks and Recreation hosted the event. People enjoyed food trucks, local vendors, and kite-flying.

“Free family festival definitely offers and opportunities for families to slow down from their busy, everyday life. The rush of school and sports and activities that they do. They have an opportunity to come out and just really spend the day focusing on being together, having fun and being creative, and hopefully flying a kite," said SMV Discovery Museum Executive Director, Jenn Malone.

The park was filled with families, people of all ages, pets and kites covered the sky. A family from the American Kite Flyers Association Monica and James Weston have traveled from Seal Beach for 15 years to show support to the Santa Maria Kite Festival.

“I think it's great whenever you get families outside. I mean, we put on Kite flys in our town before for that very reason. It's great, healthy productivity outside. It is such a pleasure. Like you said, it's a lot of smiles," said James Weston.

Orcutt local Crystal Sauceda and her husband spent the day at the park with their children. They saw loved ones and flew kites for the 10th year.

“There's nobody wanting to leave. I mean, even my kids who normally are like, okay, I'm done, let's move on. And they're all they they want. They keep asking if they can stay. So they did a great thing. Nobody wants to go home," said Sauceda.

The weather was perfect for Kites, no rain, the sun was out and high winds made sure kites flew high.