Posts Tagged ‘Keiki Fun’

Book Lovers Rejoice – - – the Fourth Annual Hawai’i Book and Music Festival will be held on the grounds of the Honolulu Hale on May 16th and 17th from 10AM to 8PM.  Sponsored by the Bank of Hawai’i, along with a whole bunch of terrific co-sponsors, the Hawai’i Book & Music Festival just keeps getting bigger and better.  It is a celebration of books and music providing an excellent opportunity for folks to meet & mingle with many of their favorite authors as well as introducing folks to books & music of every description; new books & titles, old books & titles yearning to be rediscovered, whatevers!

This is one of those events that the entire family will want to attend.  There will be exhibits by publishers & authors, lots of talk story & music, poetry readings, comedy and panel discussions by authors & editors & others versed in the art of the spoken and musical word.

The festival has expanded for 2009 with two evening concerts from 5 to 8 PM.  The retailing giant Target presents Jake Shimabukuro on Saturday May 16 2009, while Outrigger Hotels sponsors KANI KA PILA and a 6-Band Competition.  But you do not have to wait to be entertained; there will be exciting activities throughout the event, such as “NEW! HAWAII CHORUS SHOWCASE: 8 spectacular choruses Hawaii Youth Opera Chorus, Windward Choral Society, Sweet Adelines, Sounds of Aloha, Honolulu Gay Men’s Chorus, La Pietra, Iolani, MidPac.”

One of the most popular pavilions is the ‘Talk Story Stage’ where one can watch/listen to many of Hawai’i’s best story tellers, among those listed for 2009; Jeff Gere, Tita Cathy Collins, Ed Chevy, Nyla Fujii-Baab, Sandra MacLees, James McCarthy, Lopaka Kapanui.  There will be also be playwright slams, poetry and more.

The Hawai’i’an Culture & Language Pavilion will feature the “Akaka Bill, Origins of Hawaiian Literacy, Haena, Hawaiian Blood, Native Men Are Made Mythology, “ along with Fiction & Non Fiction Hula and Chant.”

There will also be a Keiki Stage where the terrific comedian/actor Billy Sage will read Dr Seuss, which in and of itself is reason to celebrate, check program for time.  The Keiki Stage will also feature “8 Musicals, Comedy Improv, No Sweat Shakespeah, 2 Ukulele Demos, Fight Choreography,” and “Terrence Knapp/Willows in the Wind.”

Various Hawai’i restaurants will have food booths where one can buy ‘grinds’ and for those in need of a caffeine fix Starbucks sponsors an ‘open air Festival Café.’

There will be plenty of new & old books for sale plus the Bank of Hawai’i hosts a Book Swap wherein the past thousands of books were exchanged. In fact there is so much fun to be had that readers are encouraged to scope out the website for the festival: http://www.hawaiibookandmusicfestival.org/home.html.

Now here is ‘the kicker.’  All of this fun is free!  Yea, yea, you might have to pay for a book and a plate lunch, but all the rest of the fun, the poetry slams, the talk story, even keiki rides & activities, all of this is FREE!  Occasionally Tax Dollars get well spent!  Not only is the event free but there is free parking close by and naturally the Honolulu Hale Civic grounds are easy to walk to or to get to via bus.

This is one Festival that you will want to attend.