Moku O Keawe Hula Festival is the major international hula competition on the west side of Hawai’i Island, taking place annually in November. Funding for the project supported a fall festival that included international hula competitions, Hawaiian culture workshops, a Hawaiian marketplace, Ho’ike, and Hawaiian music concerts, offering students and teachers opportunities to explore historic ceremonial sites, relate land sites to traditional story and dance, and develop weaving, instrument making, and food production practices. The festival significantly impacts the local economy, provides local Native Hawaiians with meaningful education, and serves as a gathering place for Hawaiian dancers, cultural practitioners, artists, and musicians.
The 2010 festival welcomed 15 hula troupes competing in solo and group performances, judged for excellence in chant, expression, posture, gesture and movement, and costume. Overall, the festival was attended by 2000 visitors, served by 63 vendors, and included 200 participants in the 9 Hula arts workshops. Including Hula, the sellout workshops included workshops in weaving, gourd drum fabrication, stone rhythm instruments, and a cultural excursion to Mahukona Bay.
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