Arizona Aloha Festival

[pacbasin]

Wanted to check and see if anyone had been to the Aloha Festival in Phoenix last year or the year before? How busy does it get? Do a lot of the booths have free trips to Hawaii incentives? Are there busier times to look out for?

It's a pretty well established event happening in Phoenix, AZ on March 17 & 18, 2007. If someone has been, I would greatly appreciate any impressions you have or anything to look out for.

Mahalo!

[Kalihiboy]

Never heard of it before and I lived in AZ for 13 years. Unfortunately I'll leaving Phoenix on March 17th so I wont be able to check this out!

KalihiBoy

[cabanalane]

http://www.azalohafest.org/

[pacbasin]

Yeah thanks, we're definitely getting involved. Just wanted to see from a attendee standpoint if it was really busy at certain times. Or what kind of other promotions they have available.

Mahalo!

[cabanalane]

Yeah thanks, we're definitely getting involved. Just wanted to see from a attendee standpoint if it was really busy at certain times. Or what kind of other promotions they have available.

Mahalo!

A freind of mine went last year and said there were "lot's of people." That's good as I didn't know there were that many locals living in AZ.

[craigwatanabe]

One thing about people from Hawaii abroad...it doesn't matter if you're Haole or not but we will stick together and when there's an announcement of a Hawaiian event man we come outta da woodwork!

In Idaho there were four of us that started the Hawaii Club on our base in Mtn. Home. By year's end our base commander told us we had to list our organization because we had gotten too big for a simple social gathering amongst friends. We wanted to have a simple luau for our then small group of 20-something but word got out and soon we were looking at a hundred then a couple of hundred then OMG Hundreds of people wanted to come, so we ended up using the officer's dining hall and when that wasn't enough the luau spilled onto the lawn as a basewide event. We had close to a thousand people partaking in this luau.

We tried to make it as authentic as possible with plenty of the guy's wives coming up to dance the hula. It was so successful our base commander gave us letters of accomodations for our contributions to the base.

[pacbasin]

A freind of mine went last year and said there were "lot's of people." That's good as I didn't know there were that many locals living in AZ.

Mahalo, that's good to know. Yeah, they say that they get about 100,000 people in the two day festival. I was a little shocked to say the least.

Mahalo,
Shaun

[Honukani]

I've been to the festival every year for the last eight. The annual event has been going on for 13 years. It's been a great way to meet others and yes, there are quite a few locals here in Arizona. Approximately 60k show up for the two days. Last year, it rained on Saturday and the turnout was still good. The food is awesome and the malasadas and manapua sell out very quickly. The busiest times are on Saturday when the entertainment starts at 11:00 - 3:00. Sundays is the least busiest. There will be an area to play and learn ukuleles and an island jam at the closing ceremonies on Sunday. So, anyone has an uke, bring yours. All the canoe clubs from Arizona will be there. A band called Ardijah from New Zealand and Miki Oi are really popular. They both play hawaiian raggae. Most of the entertainment are from Arizona halaus. Story telling is popular and for the first time a tattoo artist will be there. BTW, anyone want to apply for a story telling scholarship, sign up at the informational booth. As for trip incentives, Hawaiian Airlines is a sponsor and will be there. Not sure if a free trip is offered.

[cabanalane]

This year's festival (2008) will be March 15 & 16. See the same link above.

[azkeoni]

I went to the AZ Aloha Festival this past Sunday and had an awesome time as usual despite the cooler 60 degree weather. At least it was partly sunny and didn't rain like the weather forecasters had predicted it would. This was my third year in a row going to the AZ Aloha Festival. I love it! Excellent island food, entertainment and shopping. With all the locals transplated from Hawaii and other south pacific islands attending the festival, it's almost like being back in Hawaii. Except plenty of sand in Arizona but no ocean. :)

I brought my new high-def camcorder and digital camera to the festival this year. Got some excellent video footage and photos of the hula/dance performances Sunday afternoon. I've uploaded videos of two of the performances to Vimeo at http://www.vimeo.com/user341007/videos I still have more videos from Sunday to upload to Vimeo, but I reached my upload limit for this week, so they'll have to wait until next week.
My photos from the festival are at http://desertsky.smugmug.com/gallery/4536582_h9br4#267199358

[cabanalane]

I was there on Sunday too. I missed the Kempo demostration when the break the bricks. Everyone just crowded up front so I no can see. :mad:

I was a bit disappointed in the Aloha shirts for sale. Most of them have "surfer" designs. It's fine, cause Hawaii = Surf. But the shirts look more "California" than Hawaiian.