Michelle Hartman grew up in Kula and Pukalani in Upcountry Maui, where she remembers riding her bike everywhere, being barefoot most of the time and calling her parents’ friends uncle and auntie.

“It was great to live in a beautiful country environment,” she said. “It was laid-back, I felt safe, people were friendly and I knew a lot of them by name. It’s the kind of simple, close-knit upbringing that I wanted my children to have.”

That’s the primary reason Hartman settled in Honokaa in 2003. She has since become a stalwart in that small town, which was the bustling hub of sugar plantation life on the Hamakua Coast in the early 1900s. In addition to being the owner of Big Island Grown, a store that sells only goods that are grown or made on Hawaii island, she is president of the Honokaa Business Association and coordinator of First Friday in Honokaa, the monthly street party that the association sponsors.

“First Friday gives us a chance to spotlight our historic town,” Hartman said. “It’s one of the few plantation towns in Hawaii that have retained their sweet rural character. Walk along Mamane Street, our main street, and it’s like you’re in the Hawaii of a century ago.”

Hartman and Alison Higgins, owner of Grace Flowers Hawaii and former association board member, came up with the idea of launching First Friday in Honokaa in 2013.

“We wanted to shake up our sleepy little town with a monthly party that would connect visitors and residents with businesses in Honokaa,” Hartman said. “Honolulu and Wailuku on Maui have been putting on First Fridays for years, and we thought, ‘We can do that, too!’”

They identified locations in town where booths and food trucks could be set up, asked local musicians and hula halau to perform, rounded up volunteers to help run the event and persuaded building and store owners to stay open beyond normal business hours and offer discounts, merchandise samples and special activities.

The inaugural First Friday in Honokaa was held in February 2014, and it keeps getting bigger and better. The celebration revolves around a different theme each month (the next one will be Valentine’s Day).

“There’s live music, from new talent just finding their voices to veteran entertainers who’ve been playing with each other for years,” Hartman said.

Hele Surf and Skate hides a rock with “Aloha” and waves painted on it somewhere in town. The first person who finds it and returns it to the store receives a prize. Honokaa Country Market hosts a wine tasting, and the Hawaiian Cultural Center of Hamakua encourages local artisans to bring their jewelry, art, clothing and other wares to sell at its Mamane Street Night Market.

School and community groups participate in First Friday. Kids might be selling cotton candy, boiled peanuts, kettle corn and funnel cakes to pay for their soccer and football games on other islands. Crowds have enjoyed fashion shows, break-dancing demonstrations and a pop-up art gallery. February’s event will feature a comedy show.

“We welcome everyone to experience the charm and hospitality of our town,” Hartman said. “Come and enjoy local food, culture, camaraderie and down-home entertainment. Come and talk story and make new friends. First Friday in Honokaa is the real Hawaii, and it embodies our motto: Small Town, Big Aloha.”

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HISTORIC HONOKAA

>> Hotel Honokaa Club (1912): This was one of many small hotels in Hawaii that were owned and operated by Japanese families at the turn of the last century. It did not have a name when it opened; it was supposedly designated a “club” by the guests who frequented it, including traveling salesmen and bachelor plantation workers. By 1915 it was listed in the local business directory as the “Honokaa Hotel Club — A First Class Hotel and Boarding House, Rates $3.00 per Day and Up.” It still provides modest, reasonably priced accommodations.

>> Honokaa People’s Theatre (1930): The Neoclassical Revival-style architecture of the 525-seat People’s Theatre is typical of theaters built in Hawaii during the 1920s and 1930s to provide alternative entertainment during the Prohibition era, when bars, restaurants and other watering holes were forced to close or go underground. For 88 years it has been the venue for a wide range of events, including plays, music festivals, dance performances, cultural exhibitions, political rallies and movies.

>> Hasegawa Building (1937): Like many territorial-era mixed-use structures, the Seishiro Hasegawa Building had retail space on the ground floor, storage space behind it and living quarters for the owner and his family above. Additions were constructed in 1939 and 1949. Its namesake was a Japanese immigrant who began his business by riding his horse to plantation camps along the Hamakua Coast to sell Japanese candy. Besides those confections and hand-cranked ice cream, the Hasegawa Store sold dry goods, gift items and Shiseido cosmetics. It closed in 2002, and the building currently houses two residential units; a pottery, sculpture and art shop; and a boutique selling merchandise and artifacts from Nepal.

— Adapted from historichonokaaproject.com

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.