Nearly 250 local vendors are set to fill the Blaisdell Exhibition Hall this weekend as the Best of Hawaii Mākeke returns for a free, three-day run from Friday through Sunday. The event, presented by Hawaii's Finest Clothing, will offer fashion shows and live music alongside shopping, with the marketplace open to the public at no cost from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.
The mākeke is part of a larger Best of Hawaii Weekend at the Blaisdell Center, according to KHON2. Roughly 250 local vendors are expected to set up shop for the three-day celebration, and admission to the marketplace itself remains free and all-ages throughout the run. The station reports that on-site parking is available at Blaisdell Center for $8.
An All-Ages Concert Rounds Out the Weekend
Saturday night brings the ticketed Best of Hawaii Music Festival to the adjacent Blaisdell Arena, running from 5:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. as a one-day, all-ages show. The lineup includes Three Plus, Small Axe, Kapu Systems, Likkle Jordee, Johnny Suite, Ooklah the Moc, Kealamauloa, High Watah, and Miah Music, per the same report. Tickets for the concert cost $20 and are available through the Blaisdell box office or through Hawaii's Finest.
Hawaii's Finest also promotes its events through its social media presence, including its Instagram account, @hawaiisfinestclothing, and its website, hifinest.com. The brand's roots trace back to Molokai, where founders Paulele Alcon and Byron Tagupa launched it in December 2009 as a small t-shirt project, according to The Molokai Dispatch. Alcon started the brand after graduating from the University of Hawaii in 2007, and the company has since grown into an operation with 10 retail locations across Hawaii and Las Vegas and 150 employees.
Why Mākeke Events Matter for Local Vendors
The Hawaiian word mākeke translates to “market” or “the economy,” a Hawaiianization of the English term, according to the Hawaiian dictionary reference at trussel2.com. Events carrying that name have become common across the islands as gathering points for local makers and shoppers. Hawaii is home to 144,375 small businesses, representing 99.3% of all businesses statewide and employing 49.6% of the private workforce, per 2025 data from the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy cited by Nekko Digital.
That scale of small-business activity comes against a difficult economic backdrop. Hawaii's first-year business failure rate has climbed to 25.4%, the fourth highest in the nation, alongside a cost-of-living index of 183.9, according to figures reported by ECIKS.org. State forecasters at the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism project Hawaii's real GDP growth at 1.5% for 2026, with visitor spending expected to rise 4.3% even as inflation pressures persist, according to Hawaii Business Magazine.
A Civic Landmark With Its Own History
The Blaisdell Center campus spans 22.4 acres and opened in Honolulu on September 12, 1964, as the Honolulu International Center, originally dedicated as a war memorial for Hawaii's veterans before being renamed in 1976 for former Mayor Neal S. Blaisdell. The Blaisdell Arena can seat up to 8,800 for stage events and 7,700 for sporting events, while the nearby Concert Hall holds 2,161 guests. The City and County of Honolulu has also created a master plan for the Kakaako campus aimed at renovating its aging 1964 structures and improving pedestrian access near a planned rail transit station.
The venue has hosted a string of large-scale vendor and cultural events this year, including a Hoodline report on a Native Hawaiian convention's return and another on a 200-vendor food expo that drew large crowds to the Exhibition Hall. The complex has also faced administrative turbulence, including a June lawsuit filed by circus promoter Showmakers Inc. against the City and County of Honolulu and Ticketmaster over ticketing glitches at Blaisdell Center in February 2025 that reportedly cost the company about $1 million.
