Old Koloa Town will be buzzing with activity early Saturday for the Koloa Plantation Days parade, which begins at 10 a.m. This year’s theme, “Camp Life, Plantation Style,” celebrates the contract laborers who came from the Philippines, Japan, Okinawa, Puerto
Old Koloa Town will be buzzing with activity early Saturday for the Koloa Plantation Days parade, which begins at 10 a.m.
This year’s theme, “Camp Life, Plantation Style,” celebrates the contract laborers who came from the Philippines, Japan, Okinawa, Puerto Rico, Portugal, China, Korea and elsewhere to work on the plantations. They lived in camps around the sugar mills. In each camp, the people maintained their own respective cultures through language, food, clothing, games and sports, songs and stories.
While plantation camps have nearly disappeared and younger generations moved to modern communities, some people remember visiting grandparents in camps or spending their early years there.
Saturday’s parade will feature people walking, on decorated floats, on horseback and in decorated vehicles in an effort to capture some aspect of camp life on the plantations. They will present colorful costumes, dances and recreational activities.
From costumes to decorations and choreography, participants work for weeks for the parade by making leis, arranging tropical flowers, making banners, and getting musicians and dancers ready.
Judges seated along the parade route will intently scrutinize the units. In the afternoon, the awards for the best in each category will be announced at Koloa ballpark.
Jenichi Shigematsu, 86, is this year’s grand marshal. He knows a lot about camp life, as he was born and raised on the plantation, where his parents worked.
Stella Burgess from the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort is overall coordinator of the parade. With the help of riding and walking marshals, security staff, and many other volunteers, Burgess gets about 50 parade units assembled in four staging areas to merge into an orderly parade — and she keeps it all moving at an even pace.
Parking will be available in two pastures just north of the ballpark, handicapped parking in one section of the park, and parking along some roads in the vicinity. Blocking private driveways, parking on Ala Kinoiki (Koloa-Po‘ipu bypass road) and in the paved lot at the ball park is not permitted.
Detours at the Koloa fire station and at the bypass road will be in place from 9 a.m. until noon.
