Yearly event makes Hilo 'merrie'
By Wanda A. Adams
Assistant Features Editor
HILO, Hawai'i — For serene Hilo, the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival is like the ever-present rain: a mixed blessing.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Just as the ua keeps Hilo misty green but deters visitors, the festival brings old friends and fresh cash, but also heavier traffic and a "Honolulu-like" rush, as retiree George Paiva called it.
Sandy Vincent, left, of Sandy's Creations, helps Marie Piikea Kaleiwahea pick a Ni'ihau shell necklace at the Merrie Monarch Festival's Hawaiian Arts and Crafts Fair.
"A lot of people leave to get away from the crowds," said Craig Neff of Native Force, a Hilo clothing manufacturer. Restaurants fill up, parking is impossible to find through much of town, and you might actually have to wait through more than one cycle of a traffic light.
"If you live here, it's not what you're used to," said Paiva, who came out yesterday to watch the rehearsals at Edith Kanaka'ole Tennis Stadium — "manu'ahi (free) and no mo' crowds yet," he said.
For others, like Neff and his wife, Luana, Merrie Monarch is the economic equivalent of a second Christmas. The Neffs actually close their shop in Hilo and transfer their merchandise and staff to the official Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Arts and Crafts Fair at the Hilo Civic Center, one of a half-dozen or so fairs that are part of the Merrie Monarch landscape.
"This is a real big boon for us," said Neff. "Hilo is — what? — the second-most-depressed economy in Hawai'i, behind Moloka'i. This is my livelihood, but for a lot of people who are just getting by, they can make crafts during the year and just put out what they got and make extra money."
Case in point: Albert and Wilhelmina Malakaua of Keaukaha, who sit quietly at a table of lauhala purses and wallets, Wilhelmina sewing, Albert watching the crowd in a handsome feather-banded papale — required wear at Merrie Monarch. They work all year for this fair, Albert picking the lauhala from his yard, stripping it and weaving it, Wilhelmina stitching the linings and oiling the goods to keep them supple. "Being that we're only on Social Security," said Albert, the sale "gives us a little kick."
Savvy shoppers
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
The fairs draw merchants from around the Islands and shoppers from around the world.
Ki'a Fronda talks excitedly about the Merrie Monarch Festival and its impact on Hilo as he helps sell crafts and "reconnects" with friends.
Gail Miyaguchi of Pukalani, Maui, formerly a dancer with the halau of Hokulani Holt-Padilla, works for months preparing stock to pack up and sell at the Merrie Monarch Craft Fair. Her company Na Kani O Hula ("the sound of hula") deals in hand-made hula implements, and even as she talks she's busy wrapping rattan around the handle of an 'uli'uli gourd rattle.
Key customers at the fairs are Japanese hula enthusiasts, who arrive by the dozens and are quite knowledgeable shoppers, Miyaguchi said.
Nearby, Mieko Sato of Tokyo asks in hesitant English if she can try out a pair of Uncle Ika Vea's hand-carved pu'ili, and runs through a standard set of movements, tapping the bamboo rattles together right to left, left to right, up to the shoulders, across and to the shoulders again, listening, head cocked, for the effect.
"I like very much hula. I dance six year. I come here three times," said Sato, a housewife, before continuing with her shopping.
'Hi' and buy
The fairs serve as an intersection not only for sales, but for making connections, professional and personal.
Maile Meyer of the Native Books & Beautiful Things and Na Mea Hawai'i shops in Honolulu is selling books, but also leaving her stall to wander through the fair, which occupies two Civic Center buildings.
"I'm on the hunt for locally made things that not everybody has, and this is the place for that. The people are very resourceful. They've got more time, they live at a different pace. It's exciting to know that something new is out there."
Like everyone else, Meyer is breaking off from business every few minutes to honi — some with Western-style kisses, others touching noses and sharing breath Hawaiian-style — and exclaim over another old friend.
Designer Nake'u Awai of Honolulu, who has been dressing dancers at Merrie Monarch for decades, practically holds court as friends and longtime customers stop to chat.
He has just finished an annual Easter fashion show on O'ahu, scheduled to allow him a full week on the Big Island premiering new designs. Merrie Monarch is a competitive environment, he says, not just for the halau but for vendors. "It's enjoyable for me just to see what everybody is doing."
Annual reunion
Ki'a Fronda, who keeps a taro lo'i in Waipi'o Valley and runs an educational program for children there, doesn't make the hike up the hill for just anything. But he does come to Merrie Monarch each year to dance with Halau O Kekuhi in the free Wednesday night ho'ike.
This year, Fronda is also helping hula sister Luana Neff, a former Halau O Kekuhi dancer, with her family's shop.
"It's a good time to reconnect with friends, because they come from all over the world," Fronda said. "It's a good time to eat. And it's a good time to look at the different art through years — the traditional art, and the art that's being created now."
