Maui Arts & Entertainment

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson today shared that he and his family have been recovering from COVID-19 over the past two-and-a-half to three weeks.  

Pacific Whale Foundation invites nature photographers of all levels to enter their “Whale of a Photo Contest.” Entrants have a chance to appear on the cover of the non-profit’s “2021 Marine Life Calendar.”

Haleakalā National Park  is increasing access to park trails, by opening the first 2.5 mile section of the Keoneheʻeheʻe “Sliding Sands” Trail for use from Friday to Sunday.

Art galleries in Lahaina are welcoming back visitors on Friday, Sept. 4 with the return of Lahaina Restoration Foundation’s “Friday Night is Art Night” event.

Maui Mayor Michael Victorino announced this afternoon that the television production, Temptation Island, is “on again,” with production set to start on Sept. 8.

“I am saying this–It’s about time we take an opportunity to test–to see if these protocols that they’ve put in place will work. We have to test sooner or later–why not now, why not at the Andaz.  Let’s make that our first.  And let’s see.  Because every great plan only works if you do it.”

The 2020 Honolulu City Lights festivities are being scaled down this year in an effort to eliminate crowds to support minimizing coronavirus outbreaks. 

Lahaina Restoration Foundation announced the return of of their candle lit tours of the Baldwin Home Museum beginning Friday, Sept. 4 from 5 to 8 p.m. The home tour will return alongside a new exhibit featuring historic photographs of sports teams from the Pioneer Mill era.

The Hawai‘i Academy of Recording Arts announced the nominees for this year’s Nā Hōkū Hanohano Awards’ Favorite Entertainer of the Year.

“For whatever anyone thinks about COVID-19 and the coronavirus, there’s one thing we know, as people of Hiʻiaka, as people of Laka, as people that come from this strong tradition of hula, we know that the end of three anahulu–if we focus on wellbeing, we will be better than we were 30 days before that,” said one of the organizers Kumu Hula Mehanaokala Hind.

Mayor Michael Victorino announced that production on the television show Temptation Island has been delayed due to current COVID-19 health and safety concerns in Maui County.

E Kūpaʻa Kākou honors and celebrates the efforts of some of the 2020 Maui Nā Hoku Hanohano award nominees, accompanied by Maui hālau each Friday in September from 6 to 8:30 p.m. The series will be live streamed from the Maui Arts and Cultural Center.  There will be no in-person audience and the public is encouraged to view the stream online. 

The Nisei Veterans Memorial Center presents its August Ta-Ke leadership talk on Tuesday, Aug. 25 at 4 p.m. on Zoom with Hawaii Community Foundation’s CEO and President Micah Kane.

The National Park Service is premiering “Koa Talking to Me,” a new short film following a Hawaiian man’s love for the rare and threatened koa tree. The film is now available to stream online. 

Hui No‘eau Visual Arts Center and East Maui Watershed Partnership are inviting Maui artists to enter the 16th annual Mālama Wao Akua fine art exhibition. The juried fine art exhibition is accepting artwork from any medium depicting Maui Nui’s native plant and animal species.

The album, “Huliāmahi Volume 1” honors ʻāina in Hawai‘i with legal and political undertones. The songs will be featured in an upcoming virtual concert, “Mele Huliāmahi,” produced by Kanaeokana and Kāhuli Leo Leʻa. The concert airs on Friday, Aug. 28, 2020 at 5:30 p.m. on Facebook Live.

The project, called the “Maui Aloha ʻĀina Virtual Classroom” will release distance learning resources aimed at grades 8-12 every two weeks beginning Aug. 10, 2020.

The Nisei Veterans Memorial Center is announced its August “An Afternoon with the Author” ZOOM talk on Saturday, Aug. 8 at 1:30 p.m. Author Melinda Clarke will share the backstory to her book “Waymakers for Peace: Hiroshima and Nagasaki Survivors Speak.”

Twenty-year-old Anne S. Salamanca from Birmingham, Alabama was arrested this morning by Special Agents from the Investigations Division of the Dept. of the Attorney General.

While Aloha Festivals is a community-supported event made possible through private donations, community sponsors and merchandise sales, the festivals also relied on appropriated funds from the Hawai‘i Tourism Authority which will not be available for 2020 due to the decline in Transient Accommodations Tax.