Fuerteventura Kite Festival 2025

This year there was a lot of rays in the air, and not only *

From our arrival to the Canary Islands and up to the terrible 2020, I’ve been photographing the Fuerteventura Kite Fest every single year. After 2020 many of my pleasurable routines were broken, same as for many. I was there in 2021 and then there was a gap of three years.

This year, 2025, we all decided to go.

Those are new, at least for me. There was a couple of old ones, bigger but a bit faded after years and years of flying

The festival is held in November, this year’s program could be found here — https://corralejokitefest.com/ There is no guarantee that the site stays the same further on, but generally there never was a problem confirming the dates and sites. The helpfullness of AI tends to confuse things somewhat, so make sure you check out actual webs pages and not the AI summary.

Cuteness overload

So far, there were always two locations — the fest starts at El Cotillo and then moves to the dunes of Corralejo, where most events are held. There is a program, with some competitions and whatnots listed, but it is a bit useless, the festival being a heavily weather-dependent event. Unless you are kite enthusiast, all you need to know are the dates and the sites. After that, you are either lucky with the weather on the days of you visit, or you are not. We were half lucky, that is to say, first day the weather was good and the second day, not so much.

El Cotillo is cute, but the backdrop in the dunes of Corralejo is unbeatable.

We went there by ferry from Gran Canaria, which comes into Morro Jable port, on the opposite end of the island from Corralejo. We got to the dunes in the afternoon, somewhere close to 4 pm. It was beautifully sunny, but not many kites in the air. I thought it was because the wind wasn’t good, but when I asked one of the organizers I was told that no, it’s because they are already packing up for today. So, sunset in November is a bit past six, but about four they might be packing already. Something to keep in mind.

Small egret flying over rock pools in El Cotillo

We only came to stay for one night, and we booked a holiday apartment in El Cotillo. Nothing to do with the fest, just an observation — El Cotillo is undergoing a gentrification process. There is a few new, fancy looking restaurants and cafes, and it generally looks better. On the negative side, the little round cove La playa de La Concha aquired way too much parking around it for its own good. Now to get somewhere less crowded you need to go to the lighthouse area.

This one is very old, ten years old at the very least. Still flying, but definitely faded

The next day, the weather changed. Sunny early morning gave way to partial cloud cover, and you could see a few beards of rain hanging from the clouds over the sea. We drove across to the dunes and found parking* pretty much across the road from where the kites were. Enjoyed them for about an hour and a half. And then it rained on us.

Here, kitty, who is a good kitty?

Rains are rare on Fuerteventura, and the wind tends to be strong. All this makes it into the perfect location for a kite festival. It’s just that this time we were a bit unlucky. Mind you, a deluge of biblical proportions it wasn’t. But it wasn’t pleasant, and we have two cameras on us, so we tried to get to the car pdq. And then sat in it for about twenty minutes because, of course, everybody else was trying to get outta there at the same time.

Even with such a short time at the event, we got our fill of the beautiful kites. I heartily recommend the event. This year, the organisation was better than I remember it, with at least one bar within the fest area and shuttle buses from Corralejo. The location was moved somewhat closer to two big RIU hotels, on the Puerto del Rosario side.

Now, just a few more kites.

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* On our way back, while trying to locate a bar in Morro Jable port, where, amazingly, there were none open, we saw rays in the wild for the very first time. In the corner of the marina, we saw somebody throwing bread into water and came closer to have a look at the fish. And there were rays! Whole bunch of them, two kinds, with sharp nose and with two horns! We were seriously amazed. One thing is to see them in an aquarium and know that, in theory, there are some in the Atlantic around the Canary Islands, and quite another to suddenly see them where you don’t expect. I am not sure if they eat bread, maybe they come there to eat whoever comes to eat bread. In any case, the absense of a bar was amply compensated by the sight.

** Parking at the dunes during the fest is always tricky. This year was no exception. And once you found a spot and left your car, it might be as tricky to find it again. Recording a location is recommendable. Another option might be shuttle buses that apparently run from Corralejo and back.

*** About the shuttle buses. I saw the invitation to use them in the program, but we didn’t use them, so I can’t tell how frequent they are or how full they get. We didn’t notice any buses while we were there, not that we were looking. What I did see though was an extremely crowded bus stop between RIU hotels. Next year, I will pay closer attention.