Hawaii’s Aloha Festivals’ Parade
The following is a guest blog from Rachel Berg and the original article can be found here.
Here are some of the numbers: 13 floats. 14 marching bands. 27 vintage cars. 3 trolleys. 1 royal court. 1 private mounted unit. And an uncountable number of flowers. All this and about 4,000 other parade participants was about to converge on Waikiki’s Kalākaua Avenue, where I’d snagged a curbside seat in the bright morning sun. I’d just come from the pre-parade preparations, which I described in my last blog entry, and was eager to see everything come together.
Since 1947, the Aloha Festivals have been taking place in Hawaii in one form or another, celebrating Hawaiian culture and traditions–including music, dance, cuisine, and art–from each of Hawaii’s main islands. Events take place throughout the month of September, which is a great time to visit for shoulder-season prices, sunny swimming weather, and less crowds around the hotel pool.
All the previous night, workers had been putting the final flower touches on the floats by hand, using staples, rubber cement, and sweat equity. I watched volunteers decorate the floats in patterns using everything from seed pods and banana leaves to pinto beans and nuts. All float decoration materials had to be organic, and all had to come from the islands.
Now that everything was in place, it was their time for their moment in the sun.
All the work that goes into putting on the Festivals is volunteer-driven, and, after witnessing the float creation firsthand, it is clear that there is just a huge amount of heart that goes into making events like the Floral Parade the best they can be.
Check out the original post for more pictures.