Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival showcases Hawaii’s colorful history through traditional dance, music, films, food and arts and crafts. This vibrant addition to the Safeco Insurance Festál series, Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival showcases Hawaii’s colorful history through traditional dance, music, films, food and arts and crafts, Sept. 13, 11 a.m. – 7 p.m.
The Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival enlivens Center House with the culture and celebration of Native Hawai`i. Some of the over 50,000 Hawaiian Islanders who call Washington their home share their homeland’s colorful history through live performances of the hula, traditional mele and contemporary music as well as historical exhibits, films, Hawaiian crafts, keiki activities and ono food. The festival features special demonstrations and educational sessions on traditional arts and crafts including workshops on lei making, Hawaiian quilting and nose flute making.
This year’s festival features internationally known Nā Hoku Hanohano Award-winning Hawaiian recording artist Willie K performing traditional and contemporary Hawaiian music at the Mural Amphitheatre. His eclectic performance, strong voice and guitar skills will evoke memories of Hawaii.
Did you know? Since 1976, Charles Nainoa Thompson, Executive Director of the Polynesian Voyaging Society (PVS), has played an integral part in the design, construction and sailing of a double-hulled voyaging canoe, Hokule’a, maintained by the Hawai’i Maritime Center, and a voyaging canoe, named Hawai’iloa carved out of traditional materials. The canoe took its maiden voyage in 1995 from Hawai’i to Tahiti and back via Nuku Hiva, from where it is believed early Hawaiian settlers came. Thompson developed a system of wayfinding, or non-instrument navigation, by synthesizing traditional principles of ancient Pacific navigation with modern scientific knowledge. He is the first Hawaiian and the first Polynesian to practice the art of wayfinding on long distance ocean voyages since the 14th century.
This festival is produced by Seattle Center in partnership with the Live Aloha Hawaiian Cultural Festival Committee. For more information on Safeco Insurance Festál and other Seattle Center programming, click on www.seattlecenter.com.
