Pepsi rocks Big Island The soda company's private party features performances by the Rolling Stones
By Tim Ryan
Star-BulletinPsst! Don't tell anyone, but the Rolling Stones are coming to Hawaii. Not Honolulu, Hawaii; the Big Island, Hawaii.
The Stones will perform at the Hilton Waikoloa on Jan. 21 as part of Pepsi-Cola's five-day, 100th anniversary private "Centennial Celebration" Jan. 19-23.
"It's a once-in-a-lifetime private celebration and full of surprises for everyone attending," said a Pepsi official who declined further comment.
About 5,000 Pepsi employees and VIPs from around the world - and reportedly some Pepsi contest winners from Hawaii - will attend the "indoor" concert. Other Pepsi- sponsored concerts that week include performances by the dance troupe "Lord of the Dance" and the Honolulu Symphony with guest singer Ray Charles.
Some Waikoloa employees said the "Spice Girls" - that's Ginger, Baby, Scary, Sporty and Posh - may even make "a cameo appearance" but will not perform.
The Pepsi guests are pretty much "taking over" the Kohala coast that week, staying mainly at the Hilton Waikoloa, Hapuna Beach Prince, Mauna Kea and The Orchid at Mauna Lani, sources said. The Stones, scheduled to arrive in Kona Jan. 19, are rumored to be staying at the Orchid at Mauna Lani.
Pepsi Cola will replace Coca-Cola at the hotels where Pepsi's representatives are staying, sources said. And Roberts Hawaii Tours is shipping about 40 buses repainted to look like Pepsi bottles to the Big Island that will be used to transport the guests to various venues.
Despite Hilton Waikoloa officials' repeated "no comment" comments on the upcoming performances, sources told the Star-Bulletin that an enormous tent - two football fields long and five stories tall, constructed on land next to the hotel - is where the concerts will take place. Stage materials are all being shipped from the mainland, and construction costs are about $3 million, sources said. The "spring" tent, shipped from Santa Barbara, uses no poles to hold it up.
Pepsi leased the property from the Waikoloa Land Company in December through mid-February at an undisclosed price, sources said.
Construction of the stage and tent, capable of holding 5,000 people, began in December. De-construction will take about two weeks, an official at the Waikoloa Land Company said.
Hilton Waikoloa employees park their cars about a half-mile from the concert site, which is an easy walk to a public beach known as "A Bay" fronting the stage.
The Stones' Big Island show will be considerably different from the group's two performances at Aloha Stadium Jan. 23-24. That show is outdoors and can accommodate the rock group's much larger stage and special-effects mechanisms, sources said.
Pepsi Cola began bottling its product in 1898 in New Bern,
N.C., according to Robert Stoddard's new book, "Pepsi 100 Years," which chronicles the soda company's history. The company now is based in Purchase, N.Y.
