Start planning for Merrie Monarch '03
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
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| Halau Ka Ua Lehua performed during this year's Merrie Monarch, which marks its 40th anniversary next year.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser Merrie Monarch Festival Hula Competition 2003 Dates: April 20-26, 2003 Hotel rooms: Reserve now Festival tickets: Tickets won't be available until after Christmas. For an informational packet, send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Merrie Monarch Festival, Hawai'i Naniloa Hotel, Room 234, 93 Banyan St., Hilo, HI 96720. |
Although the hula competition itself was added to the Merrie Monarch slate only 31 years ago, the weeklong Hilo festival, with its assorted Hawaiian arts and crafts showcases, will mark its 40th birthday next year.
Dorothy Thompson, director of the event, said planning will begin in earnest now that the last folding chair in the Edith Kanaka'ole Stadium has been put away, the last bit of lei debris swept from the floor.
Entertainers at the annual Wednesday night ho'ike already are being booked, Thompson said. They will include the popular, noncompetitive Hilo hula academy, Halau O Kekuhi, and Awhina Ite Kaupapa, a Maori cultural group from New Zealand that created a huge sensation at the 1998 festival.
The fact that festival organizers are looking 12 months down the road shouldn't surprise anyone, but what may surprise Merrie Monarch wannabe spectators is that they also should start planning now, especially for an anniversary year.
The dates to mark in a 2003 calendar: April 20-26. The festival always kicks off with an Easter morning parade, with the hula competition set for the following Thursday through Saturday nights.
What goes first are the hotel rooms. You might get lucky and find a vacancy a month before departure, but the odds are stacked against anyone who waits that long. Most of the regulars, hula dancers as well as fans, turn around and book their rooms for the following year the first week or so after they get home.
The law of supply and demand means the room rates are high, from about $70 for basic accommodations to $150 or more for the better hotel rooms.
Event tickets go fast, too, but you can't even seek them until after Christmas. Orders arriving after that are filled on a first-come, first-served basis.
For now, you can start the ball rolling by requesting an informational packet. Send a self-addressed, stamped envelope to: Merrie Monarch Festival, Hawai'i Naniloa Hotel, Room 234, 93 Banyan St., Hilo, HI 96720. You will get a price list and ordering instructions.
Among the regulars already making plans is Hula Halau O Kamuela, the Honolulu school that on Saturday won its third consecutive trophy for the highest overall score. That distinction earned the group — including the newly crowned Miss Aloha Hula, Malia Petersen — a perpetual trophy not awarded since students of the late Darrell Lupenui won it in 1980.
Paleka Mattos, who with her brother Kunewa Mook stands at Kamuela's helm, this year gave credit for the honor to Kau'i Kamana'o, the halau alaka'i (apprentice teacher) who someday will take over as kumu hula.
"He did all the work," Mattos said. "Even our Miss Aloha Hula, he trained her, too. He'd even put on a skirt to show the women how to move."
Kamana'o, 24, already has become the voice of Kamuela, serving as its ho'opa'a (chanter). Making the move to kumu hula is part of his life plan, he said, but it's an honor that he'll await patiently.
"When it happens," he said, "I'll be ready."
Meanwhile, Mattos doesn't see why she should get off the Merrie-go-round after three big hits.
"Those who quit after three times, that's not me," she said with a smile. "If I win, that's fine, and if I don't, that's OK, too, because I've been there already."
