If you’re in the market for Hilo’s hottest ticket — seats at the Merrie Monarch Festival’s hula competition — you’ll need to get your request in earlier this year, and it will cost just bit more. ADVERTISING If you’re in
If you’re in the market for Hilo’s hottest ticket — seats at the Merrie Monarch Festival’s hula competition — you’ll need to get your request in earlier this year, and it will cost just bit more.
Like $10 bucks more for the three-day event.
But according to Luana Kawelu, the festival’s president and executive director, ticket requests must still be mailed in, postmarked Dec. 1 or later. That’s a break from the past, when the office accepted only ticket requests postmarked Dec. 26 or later.
Requests postmarked earlier than Dec. 1 will not be accepted and will be returned to the sender. In years when Dec. 1 is on a Sunday, ticket requests must be postmarked Dec. 2 or later, or the requests will be returned unfulfilled.
“The reason I did that is (next) year’s festival starts early,” Kawelu said Wednesday. “This will be the date, though, from now on, even if the festival comes at a later date. Because (next) year’s festival starts on March 27, if we stuck to the Dec. 26 date, by the time the tickets go out, it would be the end of January, the first week of February.”
Kawelu added that would be too late for many, especially those coming from other countries, to book their flights and accommodations for the festival.
The three nights of hula competition next year are Thursday, March 31, for Miss Aloha Hula, Friday, April 1, for Group Hula Kahiko (ancient hula) and Saturday, April 2, for Group Hula ‘Auana (modern hula).
Ticket prices for reserved seating are $35 or $40 for three nights, and $30 for Friday and Saturday night.
“The prices have gone up $10 over the three nights, so that’s about $3.33 a night,” Kawelu said.
