Steel Guitar Festival at Kahala Mall - Keiki Style

August 9, 2018 • Addison Ching • Festivals and Conventions

A new steel guitar festival will be added to the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival series of community festivals in 2019. The Kahala Mall shopping center in the Waialae-Kahala area of Honolulu and serving the communities of East O'ahu will host the 1st Annual Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival at Kahala Mall - Keiki Style. This festival will exclusively feature keiki steel guitarists from Alan Akaka's Ke Kula Mele School of Hawaiian Music ages 10 through 15.

The festival will be presented on August 17, 2019 from 2 PM to 4 PM at the mall's center stage and will feature an assortment of student steel guitarists and a backup band. Although the program has not yet been decided, a round-robin kanikapila-style performance featuring all participating steel guitarists playing together has been popular at other festivals and is ikely to be included in the Kahala Mall program. A hands-on steel guitar demonstration table will provide guests with an opportunity to learn more about the steel guitar.

Ke Kula Mele Next Generation Steel Guitarists and Musicians Joey Misailidis, Malie Lyman, Tai Misailidis, and Pono Fernandez.

Breezy Ridge® Instruments from Center Valley, Pennsylvania, home of John Pearse® strings and accessories, will present the festival along with the Kahala Mall and HIMELE. John Pearse® bars and strings are the preferred choice of the Ke Kula Mele keiki steel guitarists. Breezy Ridge® Instruments will be providing support to the keiki performers.

The Kahala Mall festival is the third in a series of community-focused steel guitar festivals presented by HIMELE to O'ahu communities. Other community-focused festivals are offered at Ka Makana Ali'i and Windward Mall shopping centers and serve the West Oahu and Windward O'ahu communities respectively. Shopping destination venues are chosen for their convenient location and free parking. The Kahala Mall festival is the seventh steel guitar festival produced statewide by HIMELE.

Additional information about the Kahala Mall event is on the festival website at www.hawaiiansteelguitarfestival.com/km.

HSGF