Kilauea starts the Christmas festivities today

KILAUEA – The North Shore enters Christmas today as two event planners from Kilauea kick off their holiday programs with virtual and in-person concerts.

Local non-profit Kaulana Kilauea’s seventh annual Christmas concert starts at 5 p.m.

The popular show, which drew hundreds of attendees as it previously stood in person, will be broadcast live online for the second year in a row, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Kilauea Social Club and Kupaoa return as this year’s featured groups.

“The Kilauea Social Club is awesome,” said concert founder Lihau Paik in a recent interview. “It’s all those aunts and uncles. They meet every week to jam.

Paik and her husband Kellen form Kupaoa.

Participants can expect the Social Club and the Paiks to perform a mix of classic Christmas songs and material from their 2015 album “Gift of the Heart”, which won Christmas Album of the Year at the Hawai’i Academy of Recording Arts’ 2016 Na Hoku Hanohano Prize.

“It’s all acoustic stuff,” said Lihau Paik. “Guitar, bass and ukulele.”

Participants can tune into Kilauea Christmas on the Kaulana Kilauea Facebook page and at kaulanakilauea.org.

The live broadcast of the concert is scheduled to end between 6:30 p.m. and 7 p.m., but will be archived for later viewing.

Also today, Grammy-winning artist and Na Hoku Hanohano, John Cruz, will kick off the Anaina Hou Community Park vacation with two in-person concerts.

Cruz will be presenting a free show for the keiki at 11 a.m. at the weekly Anaina Hou Farmer’s Market. Later today, he will deliver a paid concert inspired by his latest single, “It’s Time to Build a Bridge”, released yesterday.

“The song, composed by John and longtime writing partner Mark Herschler, recognizes the power of empathy and finding common ground while appealing to the human spirit that uplifts us all,” indicates a press release. “This is a positive message particularly relevant for the holiday season. “

Doors open at the Porter Pavilion in the park at 5 p.m. The show begins at 6 p.m.

Seating in the pavilion costs $ 50 and seating on the lawn is $ 40. Tickets can be purchased at anainahou.org.

Three days of Christmas

Holiday events at Anaina Hou continue on Thursday, December 16, when ukulele virtuoso Jake Shimabukuro and his guests launch Shimabukuro’s holiday show, Christmas in Hawai’i.

The organizers of Anaina Hou hope to make the Shimabukuro Christmas concert an annual event. This year’s show will feature both holiday classics and selections from Shimabukuro’s November 2021 album “Jake & Friends”, which features artists such as Willie Nelson, Bette Midler, Jack Johnson and others.

Doors open at the lodge at 5 p.m. Only $ 40 lawn seating tickets were available for purchase at press time.

Kaulana Kilauea will host two events simultaneously on Friday December 17th, when Santa Claus and his singing sleigh will roam the city of Kilauea from 5pm to 7pm.

A map of the Merry Old Man’s planned route can be found at kaulanakilauea.org/events.

Kaulana Kilauea board members will take the time to judge the Christmas decorations of the houses during the visit of Santa Claus. The three most festive homes will receive prizes, as winners of the nonprofit’s Home for the Holidays lighting and decoration contest.

Finally, on Saturday December 18, Santa Claus will visit the Anaina Hou farmer’s market to take free photos.

The queue for photos with Santa Claus opens at 10:30 am on the lawn of the Porter Pavilion. Photos will be taken from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Masks are compulsory.

“We hope that between the keiki concert with John Cruz, a holiday show with Jake Shimabukuro and free photos with Santa, there will be some kind of holiday activity for everyone to enjoy,” Ben said. Karon, director of operations for Anaina Hou.

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Scott Yunker, journalist, can be contacted at 245-0437 or syunker@thegardenisland.com.