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The Haleiwa Arts Festival, the Pineapple Festival in Wahiawa and other nonprofit events will be allowed to continue this year by obtaining permits, Mayor Kirk Caldwell is expected to announced at a press conference this afternoon.
Organizers from both the Haleiwa and Wahiawa events last week told members of a City Council committee that a law that took effect on July 1 would prevent them from continuing.
The law was adopted to bar commercial activity at Kailua and Kalama beach parks but city attorneys later determined that the language actually barred commercial activity at all city parks and beaches.
The Council is considering a bill that would carve out an exemption for nonprofit events that include commercial activity. Meanwhile, organizers for the Haleiwa Arts Festival and Pineapple Festival urged Caldwell to use his executive authority to place a moratorium on enforcing the law on them until the Council could pass a bill.
