Festival Program
For many years HIMELE has offered a comprehensive steel guitar festival in tandem with the Aloha Music Camp to extend and enhance the steel guitar experience for camp participants and to provide a steel guitar experience to the community. This comprehensive festival included a concert, school visitations, a steel guitar exhibit, workshops, an Open Stage, and public kanikapila.
A festival was first created on Kaua‘i when the camp was located there, and when the camp relocated to the Kona area, an additional festival was created by HIMELE to continue that experience. HIMELE continues to offer an annual festival on Kaua‘i in a single-day concert-only format.
2025 was the last year of the Aloha Music Camp in its current format. HIMELE is awaiting further action or notice from the camp's producers, the Mohala Hou Foundation to see if the camp will be resumed sometime in the future. Until that time, HIMELE has decided to pause the Kona Steel Guitar Festival in its comprehensive, multi-day format.
The Kona Steel Guitar Festival is one of two steel guitar festivals offered annually in the Kona area. The Hawaiian Steel Guitar Experience at Mauna Lani is a compehensive festival that will continue to be presented annually at the Mauna Lani, Auberge Resorts Collection.
Depending on action by the Mohala Hou Foundation, HIMELE may resume the Kona festival or present it in a modified format in 2026. Please check back for updated information.
Festival Archives
The Festival Archives contains program information from previous festivals.
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