This year’s Kualoa/Hakipuʻu Canoe Festival will be back in-person next month. The festival highlights and honors the Native Hawaiian voyaging tradition with paddling and sailing activities, navigation lessons and education booths.
The Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation announced the free festival will take place on Saturday, March 5 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Kualoa Regional Park.
"The festival was, kind of its genesis was based off of the Hokuleʻa. So the time and place is set to mark the birthday of Hokuleʻa," said Nathan Serota with the department. "Kualoa was where it originally set sail from. I think for the 10th anniversary, we did have the Hokuleʻa docked offshore, and you could take a waʻa out there. And the Polynesian Voyaging Society allows you to come aboard, and they showed you all the different ways that the crew would use the vessel to navigate around the world – following the Mālama Honua voyage."
"This year, we will not have the famed vessel offshore, but we’ll have plenty of other fantastic ocean-going activities to enjoy," he said.
Serota says this year’s festival honors wahine voyagers with speeches from Hōkūleʻa crew and Polynesian Voyaging Society members Kaʻiulani Murphy and Bonnie Kahapea-Tanner.
Due to the festival, Kualoa Regional Park Campground A will be closed for camping from Friday, March 4 through Monday, March 7. Campground B will remain open.
