Posted on: Monday, August 30, 2004

Okinawan Festival on tap

Advertiser Staff

The Okinawan Festival — two days of entertainment, food and cultural activities — is set for 9 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday at Kapi'olani Park.

Among the highlights of the Hawai'i United Okinawa Association's 22nd annual event:

• An international parade will start at 9:30 a.m. Saturday from Fort DeRussy, heading down Kalakaua Avenue toward the park. Serving as grand marshals of the parade will be representatives of the Okinawan issei generation of immigrants, who came to Hawai'i in the early 1900s.

• Daylong programs of entertainment will include performers from Hawai'i and Okinawa groups. Among the Saturday highlights is the celebrity contest in kachashi, a traditional Okinawan free-style dance, including a performance by action hero Kikaida.

• A bon dance will follow the Saturday entertainment program, starting at 6 p.m.

• A free outdoor concert by Begin, a leading recording and performing band in Okinawa and mainland Japan, will start at 8 p.m., on the mauka side of the park bandstand.

One of Begin's more popular tunes, "Nada Sou Sou," has found a following here. Hawai'i entertainer Keali'i Reichel borrowed the song's melody for his Na Hoku Hanohano award-winning song, "Ka Nohona Pili Kai."

A "cultural tent" will house a photo booth in which people can pose in kimono or paranku drummer attire; food booths; and displays of Okinawan artifacts, bonsai, ikebana and other crafts.

The association is providing free, continuous shuttles from the Kapi'olani Community College parking lot to the festival. Shuttles will start at 7 a.m. Saturday, with the last bus returning to the campus after the concert at 11 p.m. Sunday shuttle service will start at 8 a.m. on campus, with the final bus departing at 6 p.m.