Festival organizer cuts Waikiki events

Waikiki will have eight fewer Saturday Kalakaua Avenue street closures this year now that Millwood ‘Ohana Productions has bowed to public pressure and agreed to cancel most of its events.

In September Millwood won 11 of the 15 Kalakaua Avenue event permits that are handed out annually through a city lottery. The company planned to host a festival a month, which it advertised as “Hawaii’s largest party in Waikiki,” and sell street space to vendors.

Owner David Millwood agreed with the city to cancel eight of his remaining festivals if his Feb. 20 Hearts and Hugs festival and his March 5 Lucky to Be in Hawaii Festival were allowed to proceed.

“I told Mr. Millwood that I was very grateful to him for making that generous offer because it gives the city time to revise the administrative rules and law governing this topic,” said Michael Formby, director of the city Department of Transportation Services, who oversees the Kalakaua Avenue closures.

Formby said the lottery for permits does not mean a permit is automatically granted to lottery winners. His office can deny the permit if the winning applicant does not meet expectations or the event dates prove problematic. Unfortunately for Millwood, complaints about Kalakaua Avenue closures for parade and events quickly heated up once people realized that a single for-profit vendor had acquired most of the lottery permits. The conflict was detailed in a Honolulu Star-Advertiser story Jan. 31.

Millwood lawfully obtained his event permits. But by January the city was already rethinking its policy on Kalakaua Avenue street closures in response to complaints that the quality and purpose of Millwood’s events did not justify neighborhood disruptions.

The Millwood festivals feature food trucks, local arts and crafts vendors, rides, carnival games and DJs.

The Waikiki Neighborhood Board passed a resolution by a vote of 11-2 during its Jan. 12 meeting asking the city to quit allowing for-profit events that don’t serve a public or cultural purpose to close Kalakaua Avenue on Saturday nights.

Millwood asked the Waikiki board to reconsider its stance at its Feb. 9 meeting. He said its position unfairly targeted his company and made it difficult for him to successfully operate his business.

“We have followed the ordinance to a T, which makes it hard to understand why you folks are picking on me. Maybe it’s the luck of the draw — or not the luck of the draw — that we got 11 events, because now we’re being singled out,” Millwood said.

Formby said he spoke with Millwood following the February Waikiki board meeting, where community opposition to the company’s planned Waikiki festivals remained strong. Formby said he has fielded many complaints from Waikiki residents and businesses who said the festivals negatively affected traffic and the Waikiki businesses that pay considerable rents along the corridor.

“I have the discretion to determine if his application serves a public purpose, and I told him (Millwood) that I planned to defer to the community,” Formby said. “We discussed the community’s concerns and the fact that the board had declined to reconsider their prior vote and continued to be in opposition to his festivals, which really have an impact that is different than parades.”

Formby said he has asked city staff and members of the Waikiki Neighborhood Board, the Waikiki Improvement Association, Honolulu City Council member Trevor Ozawa, who represents Waikiki, and Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernie Martin to propose a new set of rules and change the ordinance that governs Waikiki’s parade and events policies.

The city allows up to 37 events, including 15 awarded through a lottery, to close Waikiki’s main thoroughfare each year. Fourteen events are automatically renewed annually because they are legacy events that have been held for at least 15 consecutive years.

They include the King Kamehameha Parade, Aloha Festivals Parade and Honolulu Marathon. Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell also is allowed to issue eight waivers annually to popular events that didn’t get selected in the lottery. First Amendment events like the Gay Pride Parade can bring the street closure count even higher.

Waikiki Neighborhood Board Chairman Robert Finley said he is working with the city to tweak its rules for permitting parade and event street closures in the district.

“Every time one of these events has happened, my phone starts ringing off the hook,” Finley said. “We have nothing against Mr. Millwood. He saw an opportunity to use the available dates and sell spaces and make money. But you have to consider the residents’ ability to get home and be with their families. The disruption is just terrible. It took one of my board members 2-1/2 hours to make it three blocks home.”

While the community enjoys some of the legacy events, Finley said many feel the street closures are too frequent and that for-profit events should endure greater scrutiny. Last year there were 29 closures, comprising four First Amendment events, 10 legacy events, 14 lottery events and one mayor’s waiver.

In 2014 there were 26 closures: 10 legacy, 13 lottery and three First Amendment events. In 2013 there were 28 closures: 14 lottery, 10 legacy and four First Amendment events.

Waikiki businesses complain that street closures divert customers from their shops to street stalls.

“I’ve heard from the visitor industry, and it’s not right when their people come to work to make a few hundred dollars and end up taking home $20,” Finley said. “We’d like to see far fewer events — maybe 20 at the most.”

Rick Egged, president of the Waikiki Improvement Association, said his members also would like to see the city ordinance amended to reduce the overall number of street closure events permitted in Waikiki.