Moiliili Summer Fest promises food and fun

Billed as Honolulu’s largest bon dance, the Moiliili Summer Fest promises fun, food and festivities.

Many hands collaborate to stage the annual event, including Kamehameha Schools in partnership with the Moiliili Hongwanji Mission, Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii, Moiliili Community Center and the Old Town Moiliili Business Association.

Many hongwanji volunteers will help prepare a menu of favorite local treats, from yakitori sticks and barbecue beef sticks to chili rice and shoyu pork, ranging in price from $2 to $7.

Some two dozen food trucks will serve their own signature treats, including Aloha Plate’s plate lunches and Bao Tao’n’s gourmet bao buns. Street festival veterans like Ono Kettle Pop (popcorn), Paul’s Poppers (wontons) and Uncle Lani’s Poi Mochi (sweet fried dough) will also be on hand.

With dishes too numerous to list, food choices will include burgers; barbecue in both mainland and local styles; Filipino, Creole, Japanese, European, American and Brazilian flavors; and sweets such as pies and crepes. To wash it all down, there will be lemonades and iced teas.

Even farms are getting into the act, despite the festival’s urban location. Otsuji Farm and Kawailoa Farms will have stands at the event offering cooling smoothies, planter boxes and, naturally, farm-fresh food items for sale.

Moiliili Hongwanji Mission stages its own bon dance the night before the large community event, which began as a way to “include more of the various parts of the Moiliili community” while not infringing on the temple’s own observance of obon season, said event organizer Cedric Duarte.

Dancing around the central yagura will help burn off some of those calories, and the fun will be in trying to stay on beat and keep up with the most expressive dancers, though it is not at all a competition.

Organizations supporting the festival will offer educational booths, and there will be additional activities for the wee ones. Live entertainment unfurls all evening long until 9 p.m.

Lane closures for the event begin at noon. Starting at 4 p.m., attendees are encouraged to park at the University of Hawaii-Manoa lot on Dole Street, as well as the top level of the main UH parking structure. Attendees should tell the guard shack attendant they are parking for the Moiliili Summer Fest. Shuttles will run festival goers to the event site from the UH parking lot from 4 to 10 p.m.