Every year in May, the Pineapple Festival is held in Wahiawa in the Central Oahu. The festival celebrates Wahiawa’s long history of pineapple farming and packing which date back to early 1900s. I went to the festival for the first time two years ago. It was a small festival with a sense of community, and everyone at the festival all seemed to know each other. This year the event seemed to have gotten a lot bigger. The park which was about 1/3 full in the past was almost completely filled with community, commerical and religious groups’ tents. There were certainly a lot more people this year, but it lost that sense of community as a result unfortunately.
Thing that I disliked:
1. Every year they have big name chefs, like Alan Wong and Roy Yamaguchi at the festival preparing scrumptious dishes. Instead of usual ticket stubs, they decided to implement a wrist band which cost $15 and allowed you eat all you can within the Chefs Court which was walled off from the festival. It was actually more like a 10×40-yard cage, and you would lose your band if you left the area even for going to the restroom. The area was so packed; even I felt like passing out waiting in a long line with the blinding sun shinning down on me. You couldn’t even take the food and leave the area. To make the matter worse, food started running out around sooner than they expected, but they kept selling the wrist bands. I am sure some people did not want to pay $15 right off the back not really know what they were getting. On top of that, a lot of people came with their children. The organizer disappointingly required people to pay full $15 for children 3 or older. I am sure those celebrity chefs were not there to actually make money, and they wanted more people to taste their dishes and enjoy the day. The wrist band system definitely detered a lot of people who would have come by otherwise. My recommendation: go back to the ticket stubs!
2. There was a keiki activity area where they had moon bounces, slides and rides. The activities were monitored by high school students from the Leilehua High School. I wasn’t sure if they participated as volunteers or were doing a fundraise, but they were not doing their job at all. I am not trying to put down any of them. However, I saw students not caring about little keikis’ safety at any time; there were many occassions I witnessed that could lead to bunch of lawsuits… My recommendation: adult supervision would be definitely necessary along side high school students.
Things that I loved:
1. What I loved most about the festival was the free trolley tour of Wahiawa. I was very skeptical in the beginning, and the trolley tour sounded pretty corny. At the end of the tour, I was extremely glad that I got on that trolley, and it was the most worthwhile thing that I did at the festival. I learned so much about the great history of Wahiawa that it no longer seemed like a shabby rundown town any more to my eyes.
2. I loved the local Taiko groups they had there. I felt their energy, and their positive energy was definitely permeating through the whole crowds. In Japan, Taiko music is always closely related to festivals, and there is an obvious reason for it. It gets people upbeat. I would love to see those middle-age ladies and young kids next year at the event.
Lastly, I just want to thank the organizers for their hard work. I kinda miss that small community festival that we once had couple years ago though…
- Waldorf School to Expand into High School in Niu Valley
- Lucky You Live Hawai’i: The Honolulu Festival
- Maui Land & Pineapple Shutting Down Production
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