April brings Merrie Monarch Hula Festival excitement

April is the month of the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival on the island of Hawaii.  The festival is one of the jewels of the Big Island attracting talented hula dancers and hula enthusiasts from around the world.  Even without a ticket to one of the three hula competition evenings, Hilo is well worth the visit to attend the many other hula happenings during the week of April 24 to  30. And, other than the three competitions, all the events around Hilo town are  free with many showcasing the talents of the actual hula competitors as well as the hula Kumu, up and coming Keiki, and the experienced Kupuna.

The week starts on Easter day, April 24, with our favorite event, the free Music festival at the Civic Auditorium. The Ho'olaulea showcases hula performed by dancers, musicians, and Kumu from the island’s Hula Halaus.  The dancers are accompanied by fantastic musicians singing popular hapa hula songs as well as traditional Hawaiian meles. The Kumus usually attend as their students show off their talent and grace and many years we have been treated to solo dances by renowned Kumu.

The week is packed with daily events  at the Hilo Hawaiian Hotel, Hawaii Naniloa Volcanoes Resort and ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center. Arts and crafts fairs showcase Hawaiian art around the town.

On Wednesday night is the free Ho’ike, an exhibition of hula and dance in the Edith Kanaka'ole Multipurpose Stadium. The event is a special gift to the residents of Hilo and visitors and well worth the long wait in line to get a view of the pageantry and feel the excitement of the Merrie Monarch festival.

The hula competitions are Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, but if you don’t have a ticket you can watch it live on KITV or on the internet at KITV’s web site. Saturday is the colorful Merrie Monarch parade through downtown Hilo.

Here is a calendar with all the Merrie Monarch events which is being updated as new information becomes available.

We continue to monitor the radiation levels in Kona and have seen no increase in our readings. Our device registers in milliREMs the total alpha, beta and gamma radiation. It doesn’t provide information about what isotopes are in the readings, but the readings are staying at the same low levels.