It’s less than a week away.
What many consider to be the Olympics of hula, the 2022 Merrie Monarch Festival will be once again rounding up the best and most storied hula halau (hula schools) in the state for a week of nail-biting competition, wonderful performances and cultural parades.
While the festival is once again welcoming live audiences back for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, actually getting one of the 2,000 seats in the Edith Kanakaole Stadium—located on the Big Island—is incredibly difficult. People wait all year for the tickets to go live, and they sell out quickly. This year is especially difficult, if not impossible, to get a ticket to watch the event live as there will be no general tickets available, so seats can be reserved for the halau and festival sponsors.
The cultural crafts fair and parade however are still open to the public, and tickets only cost $5 for general admission. If you really want to catch the competitions live, don’t fret, you can still watch the event unfold from the comfort of your own home.
View the livestream of the 2022 Merrie Monarch Festival here, where you can watch the three major competitions on their respective dates and times.
The hoike performances mark the beginning of the Merrie Monarch Festival competitions and starts on Wednesday, April 20th. On the 21st, the Miss Aloha Hula contest begins and is one of the most watched as it crowns a single wahine hula dancer as the year’s Miss Aloha Hula. The hula kahiko performances begin on the 22nd and feature ancient styles of dance, while the more modern version of hula—hula ʻauana—is showcased on the 23rd. The awards ceremony will also be broadcasted on the 23rd and all events start at 6 p.m.
If you’re planning to watch a single night of competition—or all four—connect your livestream to your television, invite over some friends and make a night of it. The Merrie Monarch Festival is something to be celebrated—it’s a true showing of Hawaiian culture and arts, and is absolutely worth tuning in for.
For more information on the 2022 Merrie Monarch Festival’s schedule and events, visit its website here.
