Waikīkī Festival Unffected by Revised Guidelines

August 12, 2021 • Addison Ching • Festivals and Conventions

The 2021 Waikīkī Steel Guitar Festival will be presented as planned and scheduled.

The festival will be offered in two performance sessions on Saturday, August 28. The morning session will begin at 11 AM and continue to 2 PM, and the afternoon session will begin at 4:30 PM and run for two hours. For those not able to attend in person the festival will be livestreamed in entirety on Facebook and YouTube.

Hawai‘i Governor David Ige issued revised gathering directives on Tuesday, August 10, to address the increased COVID-19 spread in Hawaii due to the Delta variant. These directives primarily address and impose restrictions on social gatherings, restaurants, and indoor activities.

Professional events such as weddings, banquets and concerts fall under a different set of guidance issued by the State if guest attendance is larger than 50 guests. In this case the host of these events needs to communicate with the state to ensure that appropriate safety and pandemic mitigation protocols are in place at the time of the event.

Management and staff of the Royal Hawaiian Center, host and venue of this year's festival, met and discussed the impact of the new directives on Center events and concluded that the center would continue with existing lessons, performances, and events, as currently structured.

To address the continued Coronavirus pandemic, the center has issued guidance for entertainment events offered at the Royal Grove stage, the venue for the 2021 steel guitar festival. These include:

• Performers of the same group are not required to wear masks or socially distance, while on stage.
• Performers should be 10 feet from guests.
• A barrier, such as a plastic or acrylic barrier, is not required.
• Guests are not required to wear masks in The Royal Grove and are asked to physically distance.
• Performers announce at the beginning and middle of a show for guests to distance and encourage them to wear their masks during the duration of the show.

Festival staff and the Center will strive to ensure the safety and well-being of festival musicians and guests.