After being canceled last year due to permit issues, the 28th annual KWXX Hoolaulea, a single-day music festival with four stages on Jan. 18, will return to Hilo this weekend. Hosted by New West Broadcasting Corp., the parent company of 94.7 FM Hilo and 101.5 FM Kona, the stage will host favorites such as Ekolu, Through the Roots, Seven Suns, Anuhea, as well as Na-Hoku-Hanohano-Award-winning artists such as Mark Yamanaka and Keawe Trio; Robi Kahakalau; Darlene Ahuna; and Kainani Kahaunaele.
It’s free to attend and brings about 20,000 people to Hilo each year, said Chris Leonard, the president and general manager of New West Broadcasting Corp., which owns KWXX. He is the producer of the event, along with his wife, Kathy Leonard, daughter, Zoe Leonard, and staff.
“It's a massive lineup of some of the biggest names in Hawaiian and Island music, and then a handful of rock and roll bands as well,” Leonard said. “You don't find a lineup like this for free. Throw in 35 plus food and craft vendors. It's really a special event.”
The event paused during the Covid-19 pandemic, but returned in 2023, he said. People travel from across the state and country, as well as internationally to attend.
“All the hotels in town are sold out, and the town is buzzing,” Leonard said. “When it went away, I had a woman who had shared on our social media that she grew up in a family with a lot of aloha but not a lot of money, and this event was important to her and her family growing up because it was something that she could share with her family. And now as an adult, it's something that she [continues to share] with her family. That really resonated with me, when we were struggling to make this happen. It's a free event. It costs us a lot of money to produce, and we're fortunate that we get some help from sponsors on some of the costs, but certainly not all of them. This project, it's our biggest give-back of the year. It’s a giant give-back and mahalo from our radio station, our flagship station, KWXX, to the community. And it's stories like that that are pretty common and come back to us unsolicited on a regular basis that keep us going.”
Parking is limited and attendees can use a free shuttle service from the Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium or the Aupuni Center to the music festival, courtesy of Roberts Hawaii.
This year, the event’s sponsors include the Coca-Cola Co. and Monster Energy, according to KWXX’s website.
“It's getting more and more difficult to do — more and more costly to do, but it's just a really special event for our community,” Leonard said. “And to see people coming out and enjoying that — to see grandparents and great-grandparents pushing babies and strollers at the beginning of the night to Aunty Irene, who is very well known here in Hilo and in her mid-90s and has been coming to this event and in the front row for years, and she will be there again this year; there is something for everyone.”
For the full list of performers on each stage, go to KWXX’s website.
Katie Helland can be reached at katie@alohastatedaily.com.
