The Kauai Underground Artists will be continuing to plant seeds of creativity this Saturday at their annual event at Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center. Lila Metzger, KUGA founder and director and creator of the organization’s annual Love Life Creative
The Kauai Underground Artists will be continuing to plant seeds of creativity this Saturday at their annual event at Kauai Community College Performing Arts Center.
Lila Metzger, KUGA founder and director and creator of the organization’s annual Love Life Creative Festival, says the event will feature visual arts, music and all styles of dance in a showcase on the KCC theatre main stage. This will be the nonprofit organization’s 6th annual festival.
“I want this to be a step up in quality to the years previous. I hope to inspire a love for life by offering Kauai quality food, music, dancing and art,” Metzger said.
The festival will include a variety of food trucks as well as a Style Hack Teen Fashion show hosted by Kauai Art Factory.
The purpose of the Love Life Creative Festival is to create a drug- and suicide-free culture on Kauai through education and exposure to different forms of creative expressions. Metzger wanted to make a difference in a community where she said suicide and drug use seemed to be everywhere, even in elementary schools on Kauai.
“It was scary to think that what was becoming our culture was suicide and drug use, happening regularly. At a KUGA meeting we wanted to do something instead of sit back and watch it continue,” remembered Metzger. “We launched this event to interject something into the atmosphere that was not normal or occurring in order to break up this terrible cycle.”
The dance aspect of the festival comes from Metzger’s love of the art form.
“I grew up wanting to be a ‘fly girl’ from the TV show ‘In Living Color,’” Metzger said. “It wasn’t until just before moving back to Kauai that I started taking dance classes in 2002 while living in California. I was taking ballet, jazz and hip-hop which I liked, but when I came back in 2003 I was introduced to breaking by three Kauai boys (Don Igaya, Jason and Jon Guerpo).
“This style of dance clicked for me and I knew this is what I wanted to do instantly. I have no desire to be a professional dancer. The reason why I do it is because I like the music and the style of this dance.”
The event will be held at the KCC Performing Arts Center from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. Food vendors will include Kick Shaws, Yanagi Sushi, The Green Pig, Rafael’s Aloha Tacos, Yamato’s Ice Cream and Rainbeau Jo’s. Local vendors will be offering kamaaina and artist direct prices.
Admission, except for the dance showcase, is free. The one-hour dance production with over 100 dancers, along with live music, requires tickets for specific showtimes at 5 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. Cost for the dance showcase is $10 in advance and $15 at the door.
www.kuga808.com.
