Ko Olina Children’s Fest offers fun with a Mexican twist

Design your own slime with Pow! Wow! founder and artist Jasper Wong. Visit face painting and balloon artists. Watch Disney/Pixar short films, plus an animated feature on the beach at sunset.

These are just some of the fun family activities planned for the 5th annual Ko Olina Children’s Festival, Saturday at Ko Olina Resort.

“The sunset finale feature film is always a highlight of the annual Ko Olina Children’s Festival,” said Sweetie Nelson, director of destination marketing at Ko Olina Resort Association. “This year we’ve themed the festival around ‘Coco’ and are so excited to share this sweet, adventurous movie with our community.”

As part of the theme, there will be Mexican arts and crafts, entertainment by El Mariachi Loco Hawaii and Rolando Sanchez, keiki cooking demonstrations, games and more.

Food will also be available for purchase and festivalgoers can bring reusable cups for refilling at the Kokua Hawaii Foundation water station.

“In keeping with our tradition, we’re giving 100 percent of ticket proceeds to the Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women & Children,” Nelson noted.

Over the past four years, the Ko Olina Children’s Festival has raised $210,000 to support Hawaii’s only maternity-, newborn- and pediatric-specialty hospital.