Puna Music Festival - 2 Days of Music - 2 Weeks of Classes

by Kalani Oceanside Retreat
(Pahoa, Big Island)

Aloha Puna Community! Celebrate local, home-grown culture at the Puna Music Festival this April 23rd through May 2nd at Kalani Oceanside Retreat, with two weeks of class activities, April 20 - May 2, and two full days of cultural festivities on Saturday, April 23, Earth Day and on Sunday, May 1st, Lei Day.

An Earth Day to Lei Day art exhibit, with silent auction, will showcase local artists. The Festival features music and hula focused cultural excursions to coastal Puna heritage sites, farmers’ markets, sustainable agrarian communities, Volcanoes National Park, and Hilo’s Merrie Monarch crafts shows and performances. On-campus activities at Kalani include ceremonies honoring halau and heiau sites, classes and kani’kapila jam sessions focused on guitar (including slack key), ukulele, ohe hano ihu (bamboo nose flute), lauhala weaving, hula kahiko and ‘auana, kahili feathered standards, lei making and more.

The April 23rd Festival performances, 6-10 p.m., begin on Kalani’s open air dining lanai with the Kawika Ka’awaloa Kalapana ensemble, followed by the art exhibit opening in the Blue Moon Room, with Halau Hula Ka Makani Hali ‘Ala O Puna, the Joe Joppe group, HIP Jazz Band, and dancing to the live drums of Boaz and Barabajaba. The Lei Day, May 1st finale activities, 10 a.m. – 10 p.m., include Ecstatic Dance, vendor crafts and food, cultural classes, pool fun, sports playoffs, Kua O Ka La alumni, Alicia Bay Laurel, Kaweki’u, Steve Kindler Quartet, Puna Men’s Chorus, aerialist dancers Wai Company, and more.

Some activities are free (e.g. Monday botanical-heritage trek and Tuesday hula), others are $10-15 each, and April 23 and May 1 Festival admission per day is $10 per child (age 12 and under) and $25 per adult, or $40 to attend both days.

To register call 808-965-7828 or visit http://www.kalani.com/pmf