Merrie Monarch Festival

The tradition & historical record

The Merrie Monarch Festival is a week-long cultural festival that takes place annually in Hilo, Hawaii during the week after Easter. It honors King David Kalākaua, who was called the "Merrie Monarch" for his patronage of the arts and is credited with restoring many Hawaiian cultural traditions during his reign, including hula. Many hālau hula (schools), including some from the U.S. mainland and some international performers, attend the festival each year to participate in exhibitions and competitions. The festival has received worldwide attention and is considered the most prestigious of all hula contests. Merrie Monarch week begins Easter Sunday every year. The competitive hula events end the week, and occur on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday; They are televised and live-streamed for free online by Hawaii News Now (formerly KHII-TV, KFVE/K5). The 2020 Merrie Monarch festival was cancelled due to coronavirus pandemic concerns. The 2021 competition was held June 24–26, without a live audience, and was broadcast July 1–3 on KFVE. The 2025 Merrie Monarch hula competition began on Thursday night April 24 at 6:00pm HST, and was livestreamed free all three nights on the website of Hawaii News Now. ¹

The festival is dedicated to the memory of King David Kalākaua, the last king of the Kingdom of Hawaii, who reigned from 1874 until his death in 1891. Kalākaua was “a patron of the arts, especially music and dance,” and is credited with reviving many endangered native Hawaiian traditions such as mythology, medicine, and chant. He was also a strong supporter of the hula, a traditional form of dance. Many of these cultural practices "had been suppressed for many years under missionary teachings." The festival is named after Kalākaua's nickname “Merrie Monarch” because he was known to always be happy, fun, and loving towards his people. The structure of the festival takes after Kalākaua's Silver Jubilee. This was a two-week celebration of Hawaiian culture on his 50th birthday (1886) at ʻIolani Palace on the island of Oʻahu. The Merrie Monarch Festival began in 1963 when Helene Hale, then Executive Officer of Hawaii County, decided to create an event to increase tourism to the Island of Hawaii. The island had suffered from economic problems after the collapse of the sugar industry, and it was hoped that a festival would boost the depressed economy. Along with George Naʻope and Gene Wilhelm, Hale organized the first Merrie Monarch Festival in 1964. This festival “consisted of a King Kalākaua beard look–alike contest, a barbershop quartet contest, a relay race, a re–creation of King Kalākaua's coronation, and a Holoku Ball among other events.” ¹

George Naʻope was a well known Kumu Hula (teacher of Hawaiian dance) throughout the whole world. He studied hula from his great grandmother since he was three years old and established his own hula school, the George Naʻope Hula School, shortly after graduating high school. ¹

The Merrie Monarch Festival occurs annually in the spring. It runs from Easter Sunday morning to Saturday evening. ¹

For the festival, a Royal Court is created to represent King David Kalākaua and Queen Kapiʻolani and their family. The Royal Court is coordinated by Uʻilani Peralto and Luana Kawelu, who each year search for a male and female to portray the king and queen. Peralto says, “the selection committee looks to find two individuals who exemplify maturity, humility, and pride in the Hawaiian culture.” The court consists of 22 members total, typically represented by the friends and family of the chosen king and queen. The rest of the royal court includes a counselor, kahu (caretaker), ladies-in-waiting, kahili bearers, chanters, and pu kane (conch shell blowers). Each person in the royal court is educated about their roles and Kalākaua's mission. These people who make up the Royal Court represent more than just Hawaiian history, but the Hawaiian spirit that continuously flows throughout the islands. The procession of the Royal Court precedes and ends each night of the Merrie Monarch hula competition, and they sit in state during the performances. ¹

The first four days of the festival consist of free, non–competition events. These include performances by local and international halau at many venues around Hilo, as well as an arts and crafts fair. The Wednesday Ho'ike Night Free exhibition at the Edith Kanakaʻole Stadium is very popular, and often features international hālau from other Pacific islands and Japan, and native or indigenous dancers and dances from locations such as Alaska and New Zealand. A final non–competition event, the Merrie Monarch Parade, takes place on Saturday morning. ¹

The festivities culminate in the annual competitions held at the Edith Kanakaʻole Multipurpose Stadium in Hoʻolulu Park. Dancers perform individually and in groups, with seven minutes allowed for each performance. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Merrie Monarch Festival”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

Merrie Monarch Festival is annual festival in Hilo, Hawaii, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation. ²