Hawaii State Farm Fair moves out to the country

The Hawaii State Farm Fair will relocate to Kualoa Ranch this year, to commemorate a half-century of supporting agriculture in Hawaii. It also will cast its gaze toward the future.

Aloha Stadium, where the event was staged for many years, provided more-than-ample parking for attendees but was not ideal for the livestock, said Joy Gold, interim executive director of the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation. The fair has moved around for the last few years.

Kualoa Ranch is a 4,000-acre working cattle ranch (which also happens to be a visitor attraction, a movie production site and a wedding and event location, among other things).

"We’re really looking forward to taking the farm fair back to the country," said Gold. Kualoa Ranch is "an incredible location" and "encompasses all the aspects we were looking for in a new venue for the event," with vistas of the mountains and sea, she said.

The 50th-anniversary farm fair on July 7 and 8 will celebrate the local agriculture industry, highlighting young farmers and ranchers from around the state. The "Ag-Tastic Expo" also will include samplings of local products, exhibits of live farm animals, workshops, demonstrations and hands-on activities.

As usual the 4H livestock show and auction will be part of the annual fair, "and it’s really something to see, because you see 4H participants from 5 to 19 years old, coming in with their best efforts in raising cows, sheep and pigs, and it’s a competitive event as well as an auction of these animals," Gold said.

The range of participation will be broadened this year to include projects and exhibits beyond livestock, as the state’s 4H clubs work on other avenues of developing leadership skills, moving into food, nutrition, clothing and aerospace, Gold said.

Longtime attendees still will get to shop in the farmers market and at the popular plant sale. A petting zoo and pony rides will be offered for kids-in-tow. And there will be a range of other activities and entertainment for the wee ones and older ones.

Admission will be $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 5 to 12. Parking at Kualoa is free. Additionally, the ranch is offering 50 percent off participation in ranch activities during the farm fair weekend.

Hawaii brains and brawn

Air Central Inc. Project Manager Clyde Fujimoto will represent Hawaii (again) at the 40th Annual International Sheet Metal Competition March 5-9 in Las Vegas. The competition is hosted by the Virginia-based International Training Institute for the unionized sheet metal and air conditioning industry.

Fujimoto and three more Hawaii men, apprentices in the Sheet Metal Workers International Local 293 labor union, will represent Hawaii in their own way.

Fujimoto is one of only a dozen people from around the U.S. and Canada chosen to compete in the detailing category of the competition.

In detailing, Fujimoto’s job is to create plans that modify concepts drawn up by consultants to ensure that "all the required equipment and duct work will fit into the space," given a building’s structure and architectural elements, he told TheBuzz.

It’s hardly Fujimoto’s first time at the big dance.

"He went last year," said Rick Paulino, apprenticeship coordinator for Local 293.

Arthur Tolentino, business manager and financial secretary of the Local 293, oversees the apprenticeship program.

Fujimoto, now nearing retirement, also was selected to compete three years in a row in his apprentice years, "like 34 years ago … in the late 1970s and early 1980s," Fujimoto said.

Rino Estrella and Todd Silgar, both of Alaka‘i Mechanical Corp., and Leon Acierto of Heide & Cook Ltd. are the apprentices that will compete in three of five sheet metal disciplines.

Estrella will compete in the architectural sheet metal category, while Silgar will compete in the industrial/welding category and Acierto will take his turn in the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) category.

The gala awards banquet will be March 9.

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Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com or on Twitter as @erikaengle.