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Gary A
Lokahi
USA
169 Posts |
 Posted - 07/27/2003 : 2:37:16 PM
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Here's my quick review of the 14th Big Island Hawaiian Music Festival, which was held July 19th and 20th in Hilo.
This used to be a one-day festival of Slack Key music. This year the organizers made it a two-day event with the first day dedicated to steel guitar and ukulele and the second day dedicated to slack key. Each day there were about ten acts, each performing for half an hour. There were also about a dozen food and craft booths. Admission was only $7. It was staffed mostly by volunteers. It was held at the Afook Chinen Civic Auditorium, which is set up as a basketball arena with bleacher seats. The acoustics were okay but not as good as a theatre or club.
I only attended the last half of the first day. I would have loved to attend both days but my wife and I were traveling with our two young kids which limited us. I counted about 300 people in attendance the day we were there.
We caught four of the acts. They were all ukulele but there was a really nice diversity to the music: Keoki Kahumoku played mostly traditional solo ukulele (plus a slack-key ukulele tune), Zachary Ah Chong is a young player who is a real "shredder", Victor Chock played a jazzier style (e.g. Santana's Europa, Black Orpheus, the George Benson tune Breezin') and Diana Aki did some wonderful falsetto singing. Overall it was a really pleasant and fun musical experience. I enjoyed all of it.
It didn't seem to be very highly publicized. I wouldn't have found out about it if it weren't for the Hawaiian Music Calendar at mele.com: http://www.mele.com/ConcertCalendar.cgi (thanks Auntie Maria!). By coincidence it happened to coincide with my vacation to the Big Island.
If you're planning a trip to the Big Island it is certainly worth your while to arrange it so you can attend the festival. Like nearly everyone, we stayed on the Kona side of the island. It's very easy to find inexpensive lodging in Hilo (otherwise it's a 2-1/2 hour drive each way between Kona and Hilo), so it's not hard to work it into your vacation.
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Gary |
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