Annual slack-key festival
features daily workshops

The popularity of Hawaiian music has always been worldwide, particularly ukulele and slack-key guitar. Longtime guitar enthusiast Milton Lau has been at the helm of the annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival for the past 22 years, and this year marks the first time that daily workshops are leading into the festival proper on Sunday.

23rd Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival » Where: Kapiolani Park Bandstand » When: 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday » Admission: Free » Call: 239-4336 or 226-2697

The workshops, run by some of the festival's participants, started Wednesday at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Hotel, with performances ending each day's worth of activities at 8 p.m. (This continues through Saturday.)

"Basically, the reason behind that is that, over the years, more and more people from overseas were coming to the festivals (on Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Hawaii and Kauai) and asking if we could offer classes so they could learn how to play slack key," Lau said. "Further, we thought that it would be a good opportunity to provide our local people a chance to learn from some of the best in the business. These efforts would also go a long way to help us preserve and perpetuate the art form, which is one of main missions for doing the festival in the first place.

"We firmly believe that these small efforts on our part can become an economic generator for the county and the state down the road. A recent survey conducted by SMS Research indicated that nearly 3,000 visitors plan their trips to Hawaii around one of our festivals and many of them want to learn the music of Hawaii by being involved in workshops such as what we are attempting to do. As evidence, the majority of the people attending the Aloha Acoustic Workshop are either from the mainland or Japan. We want the local kama'aina to attend and take advantage of these opportunities that's right in their back yard, too," he said.

The workshops run from 9 a.m. to noon and are one hour each. Slack-key guitar master Ledward Ka'apana starts the day off (his latest CD, "Kiho'alu," is produced by Lau and is on Lau's Rhythm & Roots label), followed by Kimo Hussey on ukulele.

After a lunch break, workshops begin again at 1 p.m. with slack-key guitarists Jeff Peterson and Yuki Yamauchi from Japan, Hawaiian songs with Ipo Kumukahi, hula with Karen Aiu and banjo with Paul Togioka.

For more info, call the numbers in the information box.

Everything leads up to the popular festival on Sunday, and here's the scheduled lineup:

» 11 a.m.: Ray Sowders
» 11:20 a.m.: Ozzie Kotani
» 11:40 a.m.: Danny Carvalho
» Noon: Michael Kaawa
» 12:25 p.m.: Jeff Peterson
» 12:50 p.m.: Alani "Yuki" Yamauchi (from Japan)
» 1:15 p.m.: Paul Togioka
» 1:35 p.m.: Brittni Paiva
» 2 p.m.: Pali
» 2:25 p.m.: John Cruz
» 2:50 p.m.: Pili Oha
» 3:15 p.m.: Steven King (guest from Seattle, Wash., and clinician for Taylor Guitars)
» 3:40 p.m.: Del Beazley and Dwight Kanae
» 4:05 p.m.: Ledward Ka'apana
» 4:30 p.m.: Kaukahi
» 4:55 p.m.: Donald Kaulia
» 5:20 p.m.: Maunalua