FRIDAY

>> ‘Full Moon Fest’ features a silent disco and Tavana

We’re accustomed to “music under the stars” events here, but on Friday you can enjoy “music under the moon” at the Hyatt Centric Waikiki Beach hotel.

A “Full Moon Fest” features the multitalented Tavana, who plays guitar, banjo, lap steel, and ukulele and sings soulful, island rock. Intriguing singer-songwriter Olivia Thai will join him for a second set.

After Tavana appears, DJs will present a “silent disco” – you wear headsets with lights indicating who is listening to the same thing, helping you find someone to share your beat. Dancing is encouraged, whether stagefront, in the hotel’s wading pool or around it.

The entertainment will be on the Hyatt Centric’s Lanai, an eighth-floor pool deck. With a full moon coming tonight (although some parts of the world will actually experience a lunar eclipse, the longest of the century), the Lanai area should be lit by a brilliant shine. Try looking low in the southeast sky and you might also see Mars, which is making its closest approach to Earth in 15 years.

FRIDAY-SATURDAY

>> Reggae fest hits Waipahu park

Popular New Zealand reggae group Katchafire headlines the two-night MayJah RayJah 2018 Music Festival this weekend.

Katchafire released its fifth studio album “Legacy” in June, and it quickly reached No.1 on the New Zealand iTunes album chart and No. 1 on the U.S. iTune Reggae charts. With singles “Addicted,” “Way Beyond” and “Love Today” getting play internationally, the album has reached charts in a dozen countries.

The band is led by Logan Bell (Vocals, Guitars, Bass) and his brother Jordan (Vocals, Drums), joined by Leon Davey (Vocals, Guitars, Percussion), Tere Ngarua (Bass, Guitar), and Wiremu Barriball (guitar, talkbox). The group’s members are Maori, the indigenous Polynesian people of Aotearoa, or New Zealand.

They’ll be joined by Canadian band Magic!, GanJah Records label founder Josh Heinrichs at Friday’s concert. On Saturday, the headliner is Iration, a band of locals who have relocated to California. Local artists like Mahkess, Rebel Souljahz, Eli-Mac and others will also perform during the festival.

>> Ta‘u Pupu‘a will perform for a benefit event

Opera singer Ta‘u Pupu‘a returns to Hawaii to perform in benefit events for local Methodist church organizations.

Pupu‘a was born in Tonga and moved to the U.S. as a child, where he became a pro football player for the Cleveland Browns, later the Baltimore Ravens. After injuries ended his career in the mid-1990s, he turned to his collegiate interest, opera, and went on to study at Juilliard with the help of the great Maori soprano Kiri Te Kanawa

In 2010, his last year at Juilliard, Pupu‘a got his first professional role for a performance at Tanglewood. “He seems to have limitless power, so far not entirely tamed,” the New York Times said. “The voice has real gold in its best moments.”

He has since performed around the world, including opera centers like La Scala in Italy. A book, “The Odyssey of Tevita Ta‘u Pupu‘a,” is being written about his life.

On Friday at Aiea Korean United Methodist Church, Pupu‘a performs with Julia Rolwing, an acclaimed soprano who teaches at Montclair State University in New Jersey, and University of Hawaii-Manoa music professor Maya Hoover, singing works from operas like “Aida,” “Turandot” and “Tosca.” The event is a fundraiser for Kilohana United Methodist Church, which was damaged during the April storms

On Saturday, Pupu‘a will appear at a luau at Kilohana United Methodist Church in East Honolulu, where he will perform along with The Tonga Sisters, the local quintet of sisters who appeared on “The Ellen Degeneres Show” in March. The event celebrates 150 years of women in mission and the United Methodist Women.

FRIDAY-AUGUST 5

>> Shakespeare festival continues with ‘King Lear’

Of all of Shakespeare’s well-known tragedies, none is more painful than than “King Lear.”

King Lear, elderly and wishing to retire, plans to divide his kingdom among his three daughters, giving the largest share to the daughter who loves him most. Goneril and Regan, expressing their love in exaggerated terms, are rewarded accordingly. The youngest, Cerdelia, speaks honestly and is disinherited. Despite their good fortune, the two sisters eventually cast Lear out, leaving him homeless with only a “fool” and a mysterious stranger for company.

The role of Lear — which includes bouts with insanity — is one that actors have coveted through the centuries. This year Hawaii Shakespeare Festival has cast Richard Valasek in the title role; his theater credentials include work as an actor and sound designer.

Sharon Garcia Doyle (Goneril) and Katherine Aumer (Regan) co-star as the wicked sisters, with Kirk L. Lapilio Jr., (Albany) and Paul Yau (Cornwall) as their ambitious husbands. Bronte Amoy is the virtuous Cordelia and Eden-Lee Murray plays The Fool.