Slack Key Guitar Festival Returns to Kaua‘i, Celebrates 33 Years
The 33rd Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival took place Sunday November 23, 2025 at the Outrigger Kaua‘i Beach Resort, bringing together a lineup of celebrated Hawaiian musicians for a four hour program. The event reinforced cultural ties for residents and presented an opportunity for visitor engagement that matters to local businesses and cultural preservation efforts.
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The 33rd Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival, Kaua‘i Style, convened on Sunday November 23, 2025 from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm at the Outrigger Kaua‘i Beach Resort at 4331 Kauai Beach Drive. The event focused on ki ho‘alu, the Hawaiian slack key guitar tradition, and featured performances from Donald Kaulia, Bobby Moderow, Kahiau Lam Ho, Ledward Kaapana, Michael Kaawa, Walter Keale, Michael Keale, Kailua Moon, Stephen Inglis, George Kuo, with special guests Ryder Briley and Kainoa Kanahele. Children 12 and under were admitted free, and admission pricing was listed separately for kama‘āina and visitors.
Organizers and the festival calendar framed the gathering as both a cultural celebration for local residents and a living traditions showcase for visitors. As an established event in its 33rd year, the festival represents decades of continuity in Kaua‘i’s cultural calendar, offering a stable platform for artists who perform traditional and contemporary interpretations of slack key guitar. The lineup included several of the islands’ most recognized players, a factor likely to draw both devoted local audiences and visitors seeking authentic Hawaiian music experiences.
Beyond cultural value, the festival has economic implications for Kaua‘i County. A four hour afternoons performance at a major beachfront resort can help concentrate spending in nearby hospitality, dining, parking, and retail for the duration of the event. Admission structures that differentiate kama‘āina and visitor pricing suggest an intent to balance local access with tourist revenue. The presence of the event at an established resort also illustrates the public private interplay that sustains many island cultural offerings, with commercial venues providing space while cultural promoters supply programming.
Policy considerations arise from the festival’s role in cultural preservation and local economic strategy. Continued support for recurring events like this one can help sustain artist incomes, encourage transmission of musical knowledge across generations, and contribute to Kaua‘i’s tourism product in ways that emphasize culture rather than mass consumption. Municipal permitting, venue partnerships, and tourism marketing decisions will influence whether such festivals prioritize community access, artist compensation, or visitor attraction.
For residents and planners thinking about long term trends, the festival’s 33 year run signals resilience in cultural programming even as the islands navigate changing visitor patterns and economic pressures. The event listing noted contact information and a Facebook event link for tickets and further details, and the calendar entry was published on Kaua‘i Now, a Pacific Media Group platform. Local stakeholders can view the festival both as a cultural anchor and as a component of Kaua‘i’s broader strategy for cultural tourism and community engagement.
