The fourth annual Experience Volcano Festival will celebrate the diverse people and culture of Volcano this weekend.
The festival showcases music, Hawaiian culture, artists in action, tours, demonstrations, activities, restaurant specials, food trucks and more.
This year, Experience Volcano Festival will have nearly 60 events and 50 vendors across six locations during the two-day event.
The weekend will begin with the Ohia Lehua Runs — a 5K and half marathon — from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Saturday. Partial road closures will be in effect in the Volcano Village area prior to festival hours.
Volcano Garden Arts, Lava Rock Cafe, Kilauea Lodge, Volcano Winery, Volcano Art Center and Okika Studio will all have a schedule of entertainment and events on Saturday and Sunday.
Some of these events include a historic homes tour beginning at Kilauea Lodge, a quilting demonstration from Linda Smith at Lava Rock Cafe, lei making with Zennie Sawyer and ceramic mask making with Ira Ono at Volcano Garden Arts, winery tours at Volcano Winery, flameworking with Nash Pruitt at Volcano Art Center, glass blowing at Okika Studio, and live music and hula performances at every location.
Participating restaurants and food trucks include Ohelo Cafe, Lava Rock Cafe, Aunty Pon’s Thai Food Truck, Cafe Ono, Tuk Tuke Thai Food Truck, Kilauea Lodge, and more vendors are available throughout the village.
Jesse Tunison, president of the nonprofit Experience Volcano and one of its founders, is excited for visitors and locals alike to see every thing Volcano Village has to offer while inspiring them to visit the area more often.
“One of our goals of the Experience Volcano Festival is allowing people to explore the parts of Volcano outside of the park, hopefully encouraging them to come up more,” Tunison said. “We want to highlight not only businesses, but also the many things they can do up here. A festival is our annual way of reminding everyone what we have out here.”
Lizzie Lacey with Volcano Gardens Arts has watched Experience Volcano bring people together from the Big Island and around the world to enjoy the art, nature and cultural experiences that make Volcano Village special.
“This quaint village is known globally as an art hub, and so we find that many people come not only from around the island and from neighboring islands, but also from overseas,” Lacey said. “It’s an amazing experience for visitors to experience the unique art of Volcano, inspired by the rainforest and the powerful nature around us.
“It helps our community by giving our artists and residents an opportunity to meet and enjoy each other’s talents, to share and connect, to celebrate, and mainly to experience the wonder of Volcano,” Lacey added.
Janet Coney, general manager of Kilauea Lodge and one of the founders of Experience Volcano, has been a part of the festival since the beginning and has gotten to watch it grow and help the local businesses and artists since 2018.
“The two-day festival draws a large crowd of both kama‘aina and visitors that come to enjoy the event,” Coney said. “It is a great way to show people how beautiful Volcano is outside (Hawaii Volcanoes National Park). People have the opportunity to go to different locations and support so many local vendors and artists. It always becomes a worthwhile, fun weekend.”
A map of the locations and a schedule for all the events is available online at experiencevolcano.com.
“Volcano’s tagline is art, culture and nature, and in that spirit, we let that direct what our schedule will look like,” Tunison said. “The goal is to have something for locals and visitors to enjoy genuinely without commercialization. We want to highlight the Volcano area for everything it is.”
Volcano Village will be bustling with action during the festival from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on this Saturday and Sunday.
Email Kelsey Walling at kwalling@hawaiitribune-herald.com