Three days is not much, and less of each one is flyable than people expect. Basant 2027 runs 12 to 14 March — a Friday, Saturday and Sunday, one weekend — and inside each of those days the wind that actually lifts a kite is a narrower thing still: a few hours, in roughly the same place each day.
Planning against that changes what you buy and when you are on the roof. This page is about the hours. The technique of reading wind as you fly is one step of how to fly a patang; what is confirmed about the dates themselves is on the dates page.
What Lahore's mid-March wind is doing
Mid-March is spring in Lahore rather than the tail of winter, so expect warmer afternoons and clearer mornings than the February Basant of 2026. The shape of the day is the same either way, and fairly consistent, even though any given day can break it.
Early morning is usually still. Beautiful light, empty sky, and not much lift. Good for getting a big kite up carefully, bad for anything demanding.
Wind builds through late morning. The ground warms, air starts moving, and the sky begins to fill. This is where the day turns.
Early to mid afternoon is the window. The most reliable lift of the day, and the hours when every roof in Lahore is occupied. If you have one kite and one afternoon, this is it.
It drops at sunset. The wind softens as the ground cools, kites start coming down, and the roof changes character — chai, food, dhol, the party rather than the flying.
Evening flying is a different thing. Some flying carries on after dark in light air. It is slower, it is more about being up there than about pech, and it wants your lightest kite.
Do not over-plan against this. March can hand you a dead afternoon or a fierce one. The point is knowing which way to lean.
Which kite for which hour
This is where the timing becomes a purchasing decision, and it is the main practical content of this page.
Light air — early morning, evening. The smaller kite. A 1 tawa at about 35 inches goes up in less wind and stays up in less. In genuinely still air a big kite simply will not fly, and trying is how you spend an hour achieving nothing.
Steady afternoon wind. Either, and this is when a 1.5 tawa earns itself — 40 × 34 inches, the legal maximum, and it wants steady wind and a firmer line. It is the wrong kite for a still morning and the right one at three in the afternoon.
Gusty or strong. Back to the smaller kite, and expect to lose some. A large kite in rough wind pulls hard enough to be unpleasant and breaks lines.
The size limits themselves — 35 × 30 for a patang, 40 × 34 for a gudda — are on the allowed sizes page.
Spreading three days of equipment
The mistake is treating day one as the whole festival.
Friday is the busiest and the most wasteful. Everyone is up, everyone is fighting pech, and line goes fast. If you take all your dor up on the first day you will spend it.
Saturday is the full day. A whole morning to set up and the afternoon window at its best, with the roofs busy from the start. If you fly one day properly, make it this one.
Sunday runs down. Flying in the afternoon, then the social half takes over earlier than on Saturday, because people have work the next morning.
With no weekday gap to restock in, buy before the festival rather than during it. There is no quiet Tuesday to repair on this year.
So: hold something back. A roof that gets through its only pinna on the first afternoon is buying more in Basant week at Basant week prices, which is the most expensive way to buy anything. Quantities for a whole roof are on the kite list.
Are there official hours?
Not as published. What has been announced is the dates, the rooftop standard, first aid at designated venues, and that kite flying stays prohibited across Punjab outside those days.
No daily start or finish time has been notified, and no road-closure or traffic plan has been published either. If specific hours are set closer to the festival, they will come from the district administration and the Basant portal rather than from anyone's guess today.
The one timing rule that is certain is the outer one: outside 12–14 March, flying is not lawful anywhere in Punjab — which includes the evening of the 11th and the morning of the 15th.
A workable plan
- Be on the roof by late morning on at least one day, and stay through the afternoon. That is the flying.
- Put the smaller kite up first. Save the 1.5 tawa for when the wind has settled.
- Ration the line across the whole festival. Not the first day.
- Take the layer for sunset. The roof gets cold and nobody wants to go down.
- Treat the last evening as the party, and plan food rather than kites for it.
Frequently asked
What time does Basant start?
No official daily start time has been announced. In practice the sky fills from late morning, the best wind is early to mid afternoon, and the roofs stay busy well into the evening.
What is the best time of day to fly a kite?
Early to mid afternoon, when the day's wind is most reliable. Mornings are often too still for a large kite and the wind drops again at sunset.
Can I fly a kite before or after the festival days?
No. Kite flying remains prohibited across Punjab outside the designated Basant dates of 12 to 14 March 2027.
Which day of Basant is best?
Saturday 13 March. Friday is the busiest and burns the most line, and Sunday tends to turn into an evening rather than a flying day because of work the next morning.
Which kite should I fly in light wind?
The smaller one. A 1 tawa kite at around 35 inches lifts in less wind; a 1.5 tawa wants steady air and a firmer line.
Kites, dor and everything that goes with them
Both sizes, sold singly at a published price — 1 tawa at Rs 350 for light air, 1.5 tawa at Rs 450 for a steady afternoon — plus cotton dor on QR-coded pinnay, gloves and tape. See the products and prices.
Selling is paused while our registration is suspended by the Punjab Government — see the notice. The products and prices stay published so you can plan, and we answer questions either way.
- Patang & gudda
- Cotton dor
- Pinnay
- Gloves
- Tape
- Delivery in Lahore