Announcing the First Annual Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival

June 3, 2016 • Addison Ching • Festivals and Conventions

The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival will be presented on June 11, 2016, by the Hawaii Institute for Music Enrichment and Learning Experiences (HIMELE) and the Ke Kula Mele Hawai'i School of Hawaiian Music. The festival brings together legendary steel guitarists for a celebration of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar. This is planned to be an annual event, complementing the annual Waikiki Steel Guitar Festival that is held each year in July. While the Waikiki festival is more tourism-centric, the community-focused Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival brings much of the same talent to a venue that is more casual and community oriented.

The festival will feature Next Generation steel guitarists ranging from age 11 to 17, along with some of Hawaii's favorite steel guitarists. The program begins at 11 AM at the Windward Mall in Kaneohe and will include Eddie Palama, Jeff Au Hoy, Greg Sardinha, Bobby Ingano, and Alan Akaka and The Islanders. The event emcee will be celebrity Kimo Kahoano.

The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival is the fourth in a series of Hawaiian Steel Guitar festivals produced and presented by the Hawaii Institute for Music Enrichment and Learning Experiences (HIMELE) and the Ke Kula Mele Hawai'i School of Hawaiian Music. The Hawaiian festival is made possible in collaboration with the Windward Mall. The flagship Maui Steel Guitar Festival is held in the spring on Maui in collaboration with the Arts Education for Children Group (AECG). The Kaua'i Steel Guitar Festival is held each February at the Courtyard by Marriott at Coconut Beach (Kapa'a). The Waikiki Steel Guitar Festival is held in the summer at the Royal Grove (Helumoa) venue in collaboration with the Royal Hawaiian Center. All festivals are free and open to the public and are presented to increase awareness and foster interest in the Hawaiian Steel Guitar, an instrument important to Hawaiian music and culture.