The Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua has announced the 34th Annual Celebration of the Arts will unfold September 18-19, 2026, on the resort's Honokahua grounds — a return that arrives just months after the festival's previous edition was billed as its final one. The two-day gathering welcomes artists, cultural practitioners, musicians, and educators from across Hawaiʻi, with free, complimentary daytime events open to the public.
The revival is notable because the 33rd Celebration of the Arts in April 2025 had been announced as the last iteration of the event following the retirement of longtime cultural advisor Clifford Naeʻole, according to Maui Now. That announcement was widely reported at the time, including by Travel Weekly, which noted Naeʻole went on to join construction firm Ledcor Maui as a cultural advisor after leaving the resort. Naeʻole, who co-founded the festival in 1992, said Celebration of the Arts “has been a place where Hawaiian voices lead the conversation for 34 years,” according to the seed report.
This year's theme, “Lohe Mai i ke Aʻo” — heed the teachings — carries forward the festival's original purpose. The event traces directly back to 1987, when construction crews uncovered the remains of more than 2,000 kūpuna, or ancestors, dating from 850 A.D. to the early 1800s at what is now the 13-acre Honokahua Preservation Site, according to Forbes. The discovery prompted developers to move the entire resort mauka, or inland, leaving the burial ground undisturbed, and the public outcry that followed helped drive major reforms to Hawaiʻi's state historic preservation laws.
A Festival Born From Reckoning
Naeʻole created Celebration of the Arts in 1992 specifically to give Native Hawaiian voices a dedicated space for cultural preservation and dialogue on the resort grounds following the Honokahua dispute, per Maui Now's earlier coverage cited in the dossier. He went on to serve as the resort's cultural advisor for more than three decades, becoming the first cultural advisor appointed across the global Ritz-Carlton brand, according to Building Industry Hawaii.
Programming for the 2026 edition includes hands-on demonstrations, hula and music performances, panel discussions, storytelling, traditional ceremonies, a local makers marketplace, and cultural exchange, per the resort's announcement. Additional offerings include cultural panels, hula performances, Hawaiian music showcases, lāʻau lapaʻau presentations, and interactive ʻawa and kalo experiences. The schedule also features a sunrise protocol called E Ala E and a cleansing ceremony known as Hiʻuwai.
Honoring Hōkūleʻa's 50th Anniversary
A centerpiece of this year's festival is “Hōkūleʻa at 50: Stories From the Original Crew,” a program commemorating the 50th anniversary of the famed voyaging canoe's maiden voyage. Original crew members are set to reunite to share firsthand accounts of the journey, alongside rare photographs and film footage.
Hōkūleʻa departed West Maui's Honolua Bay on May 1, 1976, and arrived in Papeʻete, Tahiti, on June 4 of that year, completing a 2,400-nautical-mile crossing without modern navigation instruments under Micronesian master navigator Mau Piailug, according to the Polynesian Voyaging Society. The voyage relied on traditional star-based navigation and proved that ancient Polynesians intentionally navigated the Pacific, a feat credited with helping ignite the modern Hawaiian Cultural Renaissance.
Falsetto Contest and Watershed Experience Return
The festival also anchors the 24th Annual Richard Hoʻopiʻi Leo Kiʻekiʻe Falsetto Contest, which honors the late falsetto legend and contest founder Richard Hoʻopiʻi. Hoʻopiʻi, who died in 2018, was raised in the rural West Maui village of Kahakuloa, was named a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellow in 1996, and earned Nā Hōkū Hanohano and Grammy honors alongside his brother Solomon as the Hoʻopiʻi Brothers, according to the National Endowment for the Arts. Last September, Makawao resident Koakāne Mattos won the 23rd edition of the contest at the Ritz-Carlton after incorporating judges' feedback from prior years to refine his traditional technique, the Maui News reported.
The 2026 contest serves as an anchor event in the island-wide Festivals of Aloha calendar, which includes Wailuku First Friday on September 4 and Aloha Friday at Queen Kaʻahumanu Center on September 11, according to Islands Events. Festivals of Aloha is an annual multi-island initiative celebrating traditional Hawaiian music, hula, crafts, and community gatherings.
Also returning is the festival's koa reforestation experience, held at the Puʻu Kukui Watershed Preserve, which supports Maui's native forests. Established in 1988 by Maui Land & Pineapple Company, the preserve spans more than 8,600 acres from an elevation of 480 feet to the 5,788-foot summit of Mauna Kahālāwai, making it the largest private nature preserve in Hawaiʻi, according to Maui Now's earlier reporting. It houses roughly 300 native plant species and functions as a key freshwater recharge area for West Maui communities.
Backing From Tourism and Community Partners
Celebration of the Arts is supported by the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority, the County of Maui Office of Economic Development, Hawaiian Airlines, and Festivals of Aloha. Melissa Lee said the festival offers residents and visitors shared stories, music, art, and traditions that deepen connections to Maui, according to the announcement.
The tourism authority's backing fits a broader statewide pattern: in July, the agency awarded $900,000 to 30 community-based organizations through its Kūkulu Ola program to support projects that perpetuate Native Hawaiian culture for residents and visitors, according to a report from Granted AI. That program is administered in partnership with Kilohana, a division of the Hawaiian Council.
Schedule details and contest tickets for the 34th Annual Celebration of the Arts are available through the Ritz-Carlton Maui, Kapalua. Daytime programming remains free and open to the public, continuing the resort's stated commitment to preserving and perpetuating Hawaiian culture on the grounds where it all began.
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