Although COVID-19 protocols will prevent the Merrie Monarch Festival from having live audiences, organizers plan for the annual hula competition to still happen this summer after being canceled in 2020 for the first time in more than a half-century.
Robert Keano Kaupu IV, one of the Na Kumu (teachers) with the Hālau Hi‘iakaināmakalehua academy, told Big Island Times the teachers have been preparing for this competition since they found out last year’s festival would be canceled. In addition to the usual financial, physical and mental elements that go into preparation during a regular year, the safety aspect of this season has added considerable strain.
“We are used to the physical, the hula part, the intellectual part, the financial part – all of the accommodations – we’re used to that, but what we’re not used to is this pandemic,” Kaupu said. “We did everything we’re mandated to do, and then some, so that we stayed healthy, we stayed safe.”
Kaupu said he even gave up smoking, both to set a good example and to protect his own health. The group also had to work on trusting one another to take precautions and look after their individual health for the sake of the group, he said.
“That was the hardest part,” he said. “That was the part that we didn’t always win. But in order to go to Merrie Monarch and travel and be bubbled with each other, we needed to be able to trust each other.”
Practicing for the competition was also more difficult under coronavirus restrictions. Fellow Na Kumu, Lono Padilla said that they have been teaching 11 classes each week through Zoom, and that they are completely virtual.
“We have just returned to physical class for Merrie Monarch,” Kaupu said. “We cut our group down from 28 women and 10 men, to 10 women and seven men so we could allow ourselves the practice time, and within the mandates of our county and our state as well as the CDC.”
Hawaiʻi News Now’s KFVE will carry broadcasts of the competition over three nights starting July 1, according to the festival website. The competition currently has 15 hālau who will be participating.
Begun in 1963, the Merrie Monarch Festival was created to honor King David Kalakaua, known as the Merrie Monarch, who worked to revive hula and other Hawaiian arts, according to a festival overview.