#year of the kahuli

The 2023 Festivals of Aloha culminates this month with the 21st Richard Ho‘opi‘i Falsetto Contest on Saturday, and events next week on the island of Molokaʻi.

This year’s Festivals of Aloha theme is “Kāhuli leo leʻa–Hoʻōla o ka wao,” or “Sweet-voiced kāhuli–Savior of the forest,” honoring the kāhuli snail.

Thousands of rare, threatened and endangered Hawaiian snails were moved from their home at a trailer in Kailua to a new, lab facility in Pearl City Thursday morning, in a transfer that caretakers have dubbed, “The Great Snail Bail.”