Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival goes virtual

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of many annual events island residents enjoy, but Milton Lau is keeping his promise to the people of Hawaii that the slack-key festivals he produces will happen as scheduled. This weekend he presents the 38th annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival “Waikiki Style” as a four-hour virtual concert.

“We’ve invested in a unit with a NewTek TriCaster, which makes (online content) more like a television production,” Lau said by phone from his Windward Oahu residence. “The sound and the video that you see is much higher quality than you would get from just pressing ‘live’ on Facebook.”

The performers this weekend are Tavana McMoore, “Uncle Bobby” Moderow, Paul Togioka, Brother Noland, Ledward Ka‘apana, Kawika Kahiapo, Kamuela Kahoano, Danny Carvalho, Stephen Inglis, Nathan Aweau, Dwight Kanae, George Kuo, Jonah Domingo, LT Smooth and Ian O’Sullivan.

“We do five festivals (each year), and they’re all going to be virtual,” Lau said. “We had thousands of people who were viewing (in June), all from the comfort of their homes on their big-screen TVs, so I’m excited about what we can do. Everybody is getting paid, and we’re doing it all with the social distancing things that are necessary to protect ourselves.”

The festival goes live at 1 p.m. Saturday. Watch on Facebook (facebook.com/Slackkeyfestivals) or YouTube (808ne.ws/SlackKeyFestival).