Thousands thronged to Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi-Purpose Stadium on Wednesday evening for the 60th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival Ho‘ike.
The evening’s festivities — an exhibition of hula at its highest level, but not judged as is the three-night Merrie Monarch Festival hula competition that begins this evening — concluded later than the Tribune-Herald’s print edition deadline.
After the entrance of the festival’s Royal Court, the singing of the U.S. national anthem and Hawaii Pono‘i, plus a Hawaiian language prayer, Halau O Kekuhi, under the direction of kumu hula Nalani Kanaka‘ole, shifted the entertainment into high gear.
The halau, which has been the first to dance in every Merrie Monarch Ho‘ike since 1997, presented, in the words of Kanaka‘ole, a program to “honor Kalakaua by mele and hula handed down through his matrilineal descent, the Ane Keohokalole line from Kauai.”
Next up, the gentlemen of Na Kamalei O Lililehua, under the direction of Robert Uluwehi Cazimero, took the audience on what Cazimero described as “a road trip around the Island of Hawaii.”
In addition to his own dancers, Cazimero employed the talents of three Miss Aloha Hulas — Cazimero’s niece, Regina Igarashi (1978), Tehani Gonzado (2000) and Henohea Kane (2009).
Cazimero, one of Hawaiian music’s brightest stars for the past half century, sang with a band he jokingly called “Bob and Boys”: his nephew, Richard Heirakuji, Kaipo Hale and Keala Chock.
The evening culminated in a tribute to storied Hilo kumu hula Johnny Lum Ho — who had committed to bringing his Halau O Ka Ua Kani Lehua to the Merrie Monarch’s hula competition for the 60th anniversary.
Lum Ho, however, died on April 3, 2022, two weeks before Easter Sunday last year.
Lum Ho had been the final surviving kumu from the first Merrie Monarch Festival hula competition in 1971, and an all-star lineup of his haumana took to the stage to pay their respects to the kumu they all knew as “Uncle Johnny.”
They included: Bert and Dari Naihe, who organized the tribune; Napua Greig, a Maui kumu hula whose women won the overall title plus Miss Aloha Hula in 2018; Robert Ke‘ano Ka‘upu IV, who with co-kumu Lono Padilla has trained three Miss Aloha Hulas; and Kaula Kamahele, Miss Aloha Hula 1980.
Lum Ho’s compositions were performed by his halau band, which include: Bert Naihe on guitar and vocals; Edward Atkins on bass; and the “Three Falsettos” — Darren Benitez, Kuana Torres-Kahele and Mark Yamanaka.
The 60th Annual Merrie Monarch festival continues today. The schedule is:
9 a.m.-5 p.m.: Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Arts and Crafts Fair at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium
10 a.m. and 1 p.m.: Hawaiian lecture and/or performance at ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center
11 a.m.: Ke Ola Pono No Na Kupuna Alu Like Pahoa, under the direction of Haunani Medeiros, at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium
Noon: Hula Halau Ke ‘Olu Makani O Mauna Loa, under the direction of Meleana Manuel, at Grand Naniloa Hotel
1 p.m.: Halau O Kawananakoa, under the direction of Alberta Nicolas, at Hilo Hawaiian Hotel
6 p.m.: Miss Aloha Hula Competition at Edith Kanaka‘ole Multi-Purpose Stadium
Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.