On Saturday we headed down to Long Beach to check out the ninth annual Ho’olaule’a tiki beach festival. When we arrived the skies were still overcast which made it nice and cool. We scoped out some of the vendors, met some cool artists and made our way down toward the grinds and music.

We grabbed some plate lunch, pork, rice and mac salad and sat our okole’s on a blanket. We chilled on the beach and listened to the sounds of Ke Anuenue, those guys can play, some great stuff. After the Ke Anuenue we hung out, grabbed some shave ice and took in the sounds of Halau Hula Ka Mele Wai ‘O Ke, another great group of talented folks. These folks put in a lot of time on their music and dance and it shows.

I was a little disappointed in the food vendors, no one had Spam musubi. I would have thought at least once place would have been cranking out the musubi, especially given all the Spam t-shirts and shorts that were available at the various vendors. The grinds were good, but not all that authentic, I didn’t think. I wasn’t expecting lau lau or poke salmon or anything, but some pulled pork  would have been nice.

We finished off the day with a stroll back through the vendors and to the car where our meter expired. It was good times for all, great music, food and some nice vendors. Since this was our first time in the nine years they’ve been doing this festival we weren’t sure what to expect. The flyer on the website said canoe rides and tiki carving, but we didn’t see those. We were only there a couple hours though, so they could have started that stuff up in the afternoon. We thought it was going to be bigger, in terms of vendors, but we don’t fault anyone for that, just an observation.

The music was great, to me that was the shining jewel of the day. There are not of places to go in the OC or even LA to hear good island music on a regular basis so this was a treat. This is certainly a festival to put on the calendar each year. We look forward to checking it out next year.