Maui Steel Guitar Festival Lineup Announced

August 13, 2022 • Addison Ching • Festivals and Conventions

The lineup of featured players for the 2022 Maui Steel Guitar Festival has been announced.

Maui steel guitarists Geronimo "Geri" Valdriz, Joel Katz, and Konopiliahi Lau will be joined by Alan Akaka, Bobby Ingano, Greg Sardinha, and Joseph Zayak. Backup musicians will be Kaipo Asing and Helene Woodward.

In addition to the featured steel guitarists, NextGen steel guitarists Mālie Lyman, Joey Misailidis and Tai Misilaidis will also participate in this year's festival.

Emcee for the October 15 event at The Shops at Wailea will be Monte McComber, Cultural Director of the Royal Hawaiian Center. Saturday's program begins at 11 AM and runs through 4 PM.

The October 16 festival at Kahului's Queen Ka‘ahumanu Center will be hosted by Maui radio personality Kathy Collins. Sunday's program also begins at 11 AM and runs through 4 PM.

The 2022 festival will be a condensed version of the festival as it ramps up post-COVID. While the festival will include a hands-on experience at both venues, festival events paused this year include school visitations, workshops, vintage steel guitar exhibit, Open Stage opportunities, and nightly kanikapila jam sessions. These features are expected to be offered in 2023 as the full festival returns on Friday and Saturday.

This year's festival will not be livestreamed as previously announced because preferred hardwired Internet connections for livestream broadcasts will not be available at either venue. Past livestream broadcasts using wireless Internet connections have been problematic and have resulted in poor or interrupted broadcast quality. However, the festival performances will be recorded offline and posted in the Hawaiian Steel Guitar Showcase archives after the festival has concluded.

The Maui Steel Guitar Festival is supported in part by the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority through the Kūkulu Ola Program, administered by the Hawai‘i Community Foundation. The festival is also supported in part by the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (SFCA), through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawai‘i or grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Additional funding comes from the Laurence H. Dorcy Hawaiian Foundation and other funding sources.