NUKOLII — Milton Lau, the event organizer of the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival, said “you have to do what you have to do,” Sunday at the 23rd annual Kauai Style Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival at the Aqua Kauai
NUKOLII — Milton Lau, the event organizer of the Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival, said “you have to do what you have to do,” Sunday at the 23rd annual Kauai Style Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival at the Aqua Kauai Beach Resort.
Aficionados of kihoalu — the term for slack key guitar styling — were greeted with a $10 admission fee to the six-hour festival which featured a non-stop lineup of entertainers, ranging from residents to visiting guests.
“There has been an increase in the number of organizations competing for grants,” Lau said. “Not all the counties have grant funding available to take care of this. You just have to do what you need to do.”
Proceeds from the concert, which featured a pair of local vendors on the outside of the concert hall, go to benefit the Kihoalu Foundation. The foundation had a table offering patrons a variety of festival gear including shirts, an assortment of CDs from participating artists, and more.
“Any purchase from the table earns you a ticket, which may earn you a Taylor guitar, unopened in its original box,” said emcee Harry B. Soria. “There are more prizes, but the Taylor guitar will go home with a lucky person today.”
Doug and Sandy McMaster, Kauai residents, opened the day’s lineup of slack key guitar artists that also included Dwight Kanae, Norman Kaawa, Cindy Combs, Danny Carvalho, Brother Noland, Paul Togioka, Donald Kaulia, Michael Keale, Ian O’Sullivan, Stephen Inglis, Kawika Kahiapo, Bobby Moderow, Keale and LT Smooth.
“This is like the old days when I used to play music at Tradewinds,” said Makepa, a lauhala and ti leaf weaver who manned one of the tables outside the concert hall. “You can hear the clapping, but where’s the music?”
Slack key guitar music is unique to Hawaii when the Hawaiian cowboys, known as paniolo, took the guitars brought to Hawaii by the Spanish and Mexicans in the 1830s, and “slacked” the strings to create the sound associated with Hawaiian music.
The “Kauai Style” in the festival title was enhanced by the offering of local menu items such as beef stew and mac salad, unavailable on the Aqua Kauai Beach Resort’s menu offering except for during the annual Visitor Industry Charity Walk.
Lau said the Hawaiian Slack Key Festival started 33 years ago on Oahu.
“In 1992, 23 years ago, we started having it on the Outer Islands with the help of grants,” Lau said. “This year, we inaugurated a Slack Key Guitar Festival in Japan where it was met with a sold-out crowd. We’re going to continue to bring this to the island. We’ll see you at the next year’s 24th annual festival.”
Lau said the festival is made possible because of the sponsorships and grants, including by newspapers, One Way Media, KaHoku Productions, Rhythm & Roots Records, Taylor Guitars and the Kihoalu Foundation.
