Kite flying begins at dawn and continues without a pause throughout the day. Friends, neighbours and total strangers battle one another for supremacy and cries of triumph rend the air when someone cuts the line of a rival. A tremendous variety of kites with different colours and shapes are seen and the enthusiast can choose specifically what he wants. Special mixtures of glue and ground glass cover the threads, which are dried and rolled onto rears known as firkees. So sharp are these threads that, carelessly used, they can cut a finger.

   The excitement does not end with nightfall, which is the time for illuminated box kites, often in a series strung on one line, to be launched into the sky. Called tukals, they add a touch of splendour to the dark sky.

Special traditional food is eaten, usually in the open field or a park or in the garden of one's home. Even for the religious, it is a time to rejoice, for it marks the movement of the sun into the Northern Hemisphere. The gods who are believed to have slumbered for six long months are now awake and the portals of heaven are thrown open. Devotees throng the temples of the city and distribute alms freely.

                One of the sidelights of the festival is the Patang Bazaar which is open 24 hours a day in the heart of Ahmedabad during the Makar Sankranti week. A visit to this bazaar in the middle of the night proves beyond all doubt that the entire population of the city is obsessed with patangs and they crowd the streets and buy their stocks while haggling and enjoying through the night.

                Kite makers is a set of one hundred thousand people or more with proper sales and distribution across the state having 70 percent of the workers as women. This is a very important source of revenue to many people.

                The Gujarat State Tourism Corporation organizes an International Kite Festival every year and the venue of the event is Police Stadium in Ahmedabad from 10th to 14th January. This event seeks to take kite flying to the tourist by inviting participants from Japan, USA, UK, Australia, Malaysia, Brazil, France, Canada and other countries. To compete and for the display of kites and kite-flying skills, there is held an attractive  competition in 7 categories comprising of foreign type painted kite which is open to all kitists, foreign type collage work kite (Cutting & stitching), Miniature kites, Indian fighter kites and flying foreign painted/collage kites. The event is not only held in Ahmedabad but also in Vadodara, Rajkot and Surat.