The Merrie Monarch Parade

Early spring in Hawaii island is our Merrie Monarch festival celebrating hula at its finest. Along with that comes an array of wonderful cultural, crafts events and many dance related venues, a few activities that I will be posting on in the next few posts.

My favorite event during the week is the parade which is very colorful and filled with pagentry and of course alot of flowers and leis. Its one of my favorite people events to photograph here on the island and gives me an opportunity to experiment and play with my craft.

Here's a nice sampling below of this beautiful parade.


A view of Hilo town with some beautiful Pa'u riders representing the various islands of Hawaii.

I loved the expression and the attitude of this guy sitting on a pick up truck

 

 

More beautiful pa'u riders, this group is from the island of Molokai represented by the green colors.

Alot of these men are actual paniolo or Hawaiian ranch hands that work the ranches on the island. This pa'u rider has beautiful leis made mostly of colorful croton leaves.

Here's a detail shot below.

The female pa'u rider has very elaborate leis and very well crafted and made with orchids, the orange abutilon and her hair piece made with bromeliads and heliconia blooms. These riders represent the colors and island of Lanai.

The beautiful pa'u riders coming from the island of Maui wear the hot pink outfits with gorgeous leis of roses and carnations.

A male pa'u rider and his horse, aren't the leis amazing to see?

Of course whats a hula parade without some dancing, this troupe all the way from Easter island peformed at one of the exhibition nights and is giving a parade performancee with  with their version of Tahitian dancing.

Our Miss Aloha 2012, the main female solo competion is very competitive with traditional and contemporary dancing along with chanting and singing. Miss Aloha had it all and rode down the boulevard to share her aloha.

 

This beautiful girl on a float was holding this hand woven hat to signify a deceased loved one, I'm glad I was able to capture this at the right moment.

 

Taiko drumming is very popular in Hawaii with many different clubs. I could never really capture the essence and beauty of this type of performance but with the tree in the background, you get some type of feeling and essence of the drumming reverberating throughout the parade route.

There's also little beauty pagaents that go on and they also get to share in the glory at this parade.

Here coffee is king and shared with the queens of Kau and Kona coffee along with their supped up camaro, what a classic!

 

Here's the backside to our pa'u rider from Kauai with purple colors and fresh leis adorned with dendrobium and cattleya orchids, isn't this just dazzling to see?

I hope you enjoy our little parade, its one of my favorites to see every year especially to photograph. Maybe you can come and visit this event with us live next year?