JULY 15/16/17

STAR-BULLETIN FILE PHOTO

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Honoring tradition

28th Prince Lot Fest
may be the last

Every year kumu hula Vicky Holt Takamine looks forward to at least one tradition each summer: Getting ready for the annual Prince Lot Hula Festival at Moanalua Gardens. She has roused her hula halau, Pua Ali'i 'Ilima, for the festival exactly 28 times, or every year the free event has been in existence.

Storied hula fest The 28th Annual Prince Lot Hula Festival Where: Moanalua Gardens When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday Admission: Free Call: 839-5334 or go online at www.mgf-hawaii.com

Every third Saturday of July, the festival has become a cause for celebrating both modern and ancient forms of hula under the shady protection of the park's monkeypod trees. While the park has meaning for Takamine as a hula teacher, it's as the spokesperson and president for Ilio'ulaokalani Foundation and Ilio'ulaokalani Coalition that she wants to keep Moanalua Gardens as the place for the festival in years to come.

"It's appropriate to celebrate hula at Moanalua Gardens," said Takamine. "King Kamehameha V had halau come and entertain at the wedding reception for Queen Emma. It was controversial to enjoy hula (at that time) and be the center of the focus ... (but) it's part of our heritage, culture and identity."

This year's Prince Lot festival -- the largest and oldest noncompetitive hula event on the island -- will feature 13 hula halau that include such esteemed winners from this year's Merrie Monarch Festival as Halau Hula O Hokulani and the kane of Halau I Ka Wekiu. But still, the festival is as much about putting on a free event for both old and new fans of the hula, as it is a chance to revisit the historical beauty of the park every July.

"It's a wonderful way to celebrate hula," said Takamine, a University of Hawaii hula teacher. "Moanalua Gardens has all the elements -- trees, flowers, family, shelter. ... One of the things I most look forward to while preparing for the festival is its ambiance. Being in that shady grove with the cool breeze blowing down into the valley, it's a haven for family and friends to relax on a wonderful day in the park."

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COURTESY MOANALUA GARDENS FOUNDATION Enjoy a day of hula Saturday at Moanalua Gardens. Halau Iolani perform at last year's fest.

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THE PRINCE LOT Hula Festival started in 1978, around the same time Takamine started her career. She opened her halau in 1977, and participated in the first Prince Lot festival the following year.

"Every year the Prince Lot Festival celebrates another year, we celebrate another one," she said.

For Takamine, the festival has become a ritual as much as teaching three hula classes a week, and she's watched the festival grow to include not only participants from the Leeward sweep but also other parts of Oahu and neighbor islands. Now nearly 8,000 people come equipped with beach mats and chairs each year for a day of hula, food, and Hawaiian arts and crafts. Takamine has also watched the development of the festival's current theme "Laukanaka Ka Hula" -- a gathering of the hula people -- take place in recent years.

For those in the close-knit hula community, the festival is a welcome departure from competitive hula, said Takamine, at least for her. (Takamine was a judge at this year's Merrie Monarch Festival.)

"Competing is great. It raises the level of technical experience, but I'm really busy," she said. "The biggest issue for competitive hula is fund raising. ... (With this festival,) I'm just so happy that students can apply what they learn and have fun, but also learn something about the land they live on, Hawaiian culture and perpetuating Hawaiian legends. ... Now the students I'm teaching will be teaching the next class, and they will be perpetuating hula for the next 100 years."

While the festival will have its share of veteran dancers, not all of Takamine's students are as experienced. She is more focused on having as many students as possible participate in the festival, a chance for both the skilled and relatively unskilled, ranging from ages 4 to 78, to have their moment in the spotlight.

"Hula is a foreign language to many students," she said. "It's not their mother tongue. Good movers can memorize choreography. But hula is about understanding the link between text and movement. In ballet or modern dance, you can do it in silence. But in hula, it's the text that drives the choreography."

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COURTESY MOANALUA GARDENS FOUNDATION Halau Iolani perform at last year's fest.

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TAKAMINE SAID hula has come a long way since it went underground after being banned in the early 1800s, along with the suppression. Part of its reemergence can be laid on the grounds of Moanalua Gardens. The festival is named in memory of King Kamehameha V, Prince Lot, whose summer cottage is located at the gardens.

Takamine hopes this year will not be among the last of the festival's shows, as the estate of Samuel Mills Damon entertains talks of selling the grounds after the dissolution of the family's trust last November. "It's just such a travesty. It's wonderful to be able to celebrate hula under those trees," she said. "I understand that it's valuable property. It's just very sad. I know the history of that place. If the land is sold, it will become the wedding capital of the world. ... (Because it's) one parcel of open space in an urban center, and with its legacy, it needs to be protected.

"There will be no moving for us, there will be no Prince Lot Festival," she said firmly. "There's no other place that's suitable for it."

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RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Kumu hula Vicky Holt Takamine chants at the hula mound at Moanalua Gardens.

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