Aloha Festivals in Hawaii
 

Please join us this weekend in Hawaii as the 60th Annual Aloha Festivals culminates with its floral parade through Waikiki. The Aloha Festivals is the largest statewide celebration, with most events happening within a 6-week span starting September 1-ish. www.alohafestivals.com

You can get a taste of local culture & history through the various events and displays.

On Friday, there will be a block party called the "Downtown Mele," where downtown Honolulu (not Waikiki, folks, this is the financial district) closes off to traffic and showcases live island entertainment on multiple stages. The best, of course, is at Aloha Tower Marketplace, where you can enjoy everything from old-time Aloha Boat Days hula to contemporary local music to homegrown Hawaiian jazz. Admission is free.

You can also view the finest works of local woodcrafters, using only Hawaii-grown wood at the 2006 Hawaii's Woodshow. This is on the second floor of the Marketplace, with many items for sale. I just took a sneak peek (they don't open till Friday) and they have gorgeous jewel boxes, a baby grand piano, a koa wood ceiling fan, koa pens & bowls, and more.

This year's theme is the "year of the paniolo (cowboy)", so on Friday night Out of the West will have roping demonstrations and lessons (also on the second floor).

www.alohatower.com/specialevents.html

The nearby Maritime Museum will also be open on Friday night, offering $2 discount on admission for those with an Aloha Festivals ribbon.

You should try to get an Aloha Festivals ribbon, which will get you free/discounted entry into all the other events & displays statewide! Just go to the website for information.....

I'll be looking for you Melissa!

Aloha!

Thanks Melissa! I highly recomend all these events! Our visitor last weekend had fun at the Waikiki Ho`olaulea, and the downtown Mele should be even more fun!

I hope to go to Aloha Tower, and probably the parade as well. I love the Pa`u riders and their horses.

I'm taking my granddaughter to the floral parade.

It is the best parade of the year.

We also go to the Kaneohe Christmas parade every year. That is her favorite.

I'm bummed out that I'll miss the floral parade. I have to go to an Aloha Boat Days event on Saturday @ 10 a.m. on the Pride of America.

But come by the jazz stage! We got the Honolulu Jazz Quartet with Ginai!!! I'll be looking for you, Hawaiiantraveler!

I forgot to add that on Sunday, Sept. 17, the Marketplace is hosting the first annual Ukulele Contest. Starts at 10 a.m., admission of course is free.

wish I could be there my friend... ((R)) mak

Melissa,

Sorry I will not be there but we are traveling to Kauai Sep. 16, do you know of anything similar going on on that island, or a website we could check? Mucho mahalo.

jamie,
www.alohafestivals.com is the site for the whole state.

Flowers AND paniolos? \:D/

Wish I could make it. Have fun.

-Bill

I wish you were here, too, Bill!!!!

All right, driving into work this morning I saw all of the traffic cones and signs that they use to block off lanes of traffic. They're already getting ready for tonight's block party.

I have to remember to get out of downtown this afternoon before they block off the streets and it becomes a madhouse.

Thank you MelissaHI for the nice invitation to all of us malihinis! The last time we were able to see the Festival was on Oahu 18 years ago! It was the highlight of our trip.

We went to the street party on Friday night when they closed down Kalakaua and saw Brother Noland in concert (for FREE) which was very exciting.

Another nice perk for us was when we checked into our hotel (the Royal Hawaiian) they were totally full because of the festival crowds so they asked if we minded if they changed us from the garden view (cheapest) room that we had booked into a small suite (for no extra charge)!

The Aloha floral parade had the most beautiful floats. In those days one of the TV networks filmed the parade and it was shown as part of the Thanksgiving parades on TV nationwide. It was fun re-living it two months later when we were back home in the cold of autumn!

MelissaHI - sure wish I could take you up on your invitation, but I won't be in Honolulu until Nov 1st. But I WILL be at the Las Vgeas version - the Ho'o'laulea will be in full swing tomorrow and Sunday and the whole family is going. Maybe someday I'll make it to the Hawaiian festival IN Hawaii.

Thanks Melissa,

Looks like the only event on Kauai is tonight, so we will miss it, darn. Will check the local paper to see if there are some minor events not on the web site when we get there.

well, the Downtown Mele was kind of sad, but the floral parade was again spectacular.

Today's Ukulele Contest was fantastic! About 20 amateur players came out to show their stuff. A 13 year old kid, in his first contest, blew everyone out of the water. He's the next Jake Shimabukuro, no doubt. We had Manoa DNA perform, and later on, Chris Kamaka (of Kamaka Ukuleles and Hookena) brought in his friend Brian Tolentino. Then Brian brought his friend Hoku Zuttermeister. Then they saw (mr) Jan Luna of the Society of Seven, and invited him to play with them. For those of you who understand "Kanekapila style," this was it! I felt like I was at someone's backyard luau.

Hope some of you got to make it down to my mall to enjoy it!!