Hawaii is finalizing plans to host delegations this summer from 28 Pacific island nations at the 13th annual festival of Pacific Arts and Culture, or FestPAC — the state’s most important international meeting since the 2011 Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders summit and the 2016 International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress.

FestPAC, touted as the world’s largest celebration of Indigenous Pacific Islanders, was launched in 1972 to halt the erosion of traditional practices through ongoing cultural exchange. It will convene June 6-16 in Hawaii and feature more than 50 programs and events. Hawaii was slated to hold the event in 2020, but the dates were moved to give participants time to recover from the pandemic’s economic and social impacts. The festival was last held in 2016 on Guam.

“This is the first time that Hawaii will host FestPAC in the event’s more than 50-year history, and we are finally in the homestretch,” Aaron J. Sala, 13th FestPAC festival director, said.

“FestPac is the foremost platform for the celebration and perpetuation of the Pacific arts and culture,” Sala said. “This is a once-in-a­-lifetime opportunity — (a) unique opportunity for Hawaii to showcase our cultural heritage with our broader Pacific ohana, while also fostering a deeper understanding and appreciation for the Pacific’s collective identity.”

Sala, a Kamehameha Schools and University of Hawaii at Manoa graduate and longtime entertainer and cultural adviser, knows something about harnessing the power of collective identity. He grew up in American Samoa and moved to Hawaii in his later elementary years.

“What has really informed how I see myself as a Native Hawaiian was my upbringing in American Samoa, and so the opportunity to host a festival like this is a rekindling of my relationships to the Pacific,” he said. “I spent my childhood bobbing up and down on these islands as a result of the travel that we did because my parents were in the (visitor) industry. The festival is an opportunity for us to rekindle our relationships as Pacific Islanders and to live unapologetically as such. This festival is an opportunity to see ourselves and others. It’s aloha.”

Sala said the festival is expected to attract 100,000 local and visitor attendees. With each nation’s minister of culture allowed to bring up to 100 delegates, Sala said the count of delegates is approaching 2,000, and will include people who specialize in cultural practices ranging from carving to weaving, singing, dancing, kapa making, fiber artistry, visual artistry and more.

He said participants are expected to come from American Samoa, Australia, Cook Islands, Easter Island (Rapa Nui), Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Kiribati, Republic of the Marshall Islands, Nauru, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Island, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Pitcairn Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, and Taiwan.

“Ho‘oulu Lahui: Regenerating Oceania” will serve as the theme of FestPAC Hawai‘i 2024, honoring the traditions of FestPAC while focusing on finding solutions to critical issues facing the Pacific region, from rising sea levels to climate change, sustainability, the death of coral reefs and widening social inequities.

Kalani Ka‘ana‘ana, chair of the FestPAC Hawaii Commission, said in a statement, “It has been eight long years since the 12th FestPAC was held in Guam back in 2016 and now we look forward to receiving our Pacific sisters and brothers, to celebrate and showcase Pacific arts, while also discussing critical issues that we all face.”

The Hawai‘i Convention Center will serve as FestPAC’s primary venue and will host the event’s Festival Village and Marketplace. Center officials said they have partnered with Architects Hawaii Ltd. to design a space that “honors and celebrates the diverse cultures of the Pacific, with an eye to sustainability and resiliency.”

The center also will host other festival events, including a film festival, a fashion gala and show, literary arts, theater shows, the Youth Ambassador Program and the Indigenous Philosophers Conference.

Another celebrated festival tradition — the Wa‘a Arrival, or canoe ceremony — will be held June 5, the day before the official start of the festival and opening ceremony on June 6. The village will open on June 7, and an ecumenical service is planned for June 9.

Sala said some festival delegations also have asked for an opportunity to pay their respects regarding Maui, which is still recovering from the deadly Aug. 8 wildfires.

The Hawai‘i Convention Center, the University of Hawaii at Manoa and Bishop Museum will host most of the festival’s primary events. Supplementary festival venues include the Polynesian Cultural Center, Outrigger Waikiki, Royal Hawaiian Center, Kuhio Beach Hula Mound, Kapiolani Bandstand, Palama Settlement, University of Hawaii West Oahu campus and Windward Community College.

In late May, Sala said, a FestPAC 50th-anniversary exhibit, titled “Our Sea of Islands,” will open in the Capitol Modern, formerly the Hawai‘i State Art Museum. He said the exhibit will stay up through the end of the year with an aim of bringing artists back to Hawaii post-FestPAC to participate in panel discussions, lectures, workshops and more.

“We are trying to assure that all of this effort going into the hosting has some major return on investment for the Native Hawaiian community, the local Hawaii community, for the Pacific Islander community and for the state of Hawaii,” Sala said.

“There are the cultural foundational pieces; then there are the bilateral and multilateral types of engagements with consular affairs, Cabinet minister meeting and high-level government meetings happening throughout the event with possibilities for more in the future,” he said.

Like APEC and IUCN, hosting FestPAC comes with a cost. Sala said the FestPAC commission approved a $20.3 million budget, of which $12.5 million has been raised. He said organizers are still taking donations, especially through festival sponsorships.

Sala said the state Legislature provided $5 million in seed money, and another $5 million came from the governor’s discretionary fund.

“Efforts are pending to close the gap between the $12.5 million and the $20.3 million,” Sala said. “COVID set us back in terms of the calendar, and the Maui wildfires set us back in terms of how robustly we were intending to engage with federal, state, county and private partners. But I am confident that we are going to meet our goal.”

Sala said the member nations pay their way to FestPAC, and then Hawaii as the host provides housing, meals, transportation and programming within the destination. He said the nations spend millions to get to Hawaii, and the vast majority could not attend without assistance. Sala said the U.S. government also has provided a $750,000 grant to help with travel visas.

Gov. Josh Green said in a statement, “FestPAC is so much more than a celebration of arts and culture, it also is a venue for leaders across the Pacific to meet and discuss important issues impacting our region that will have a lasting impact for future generations.”

Hawai‘i Convention Center General Manager Teri Orton said, “FestPAC is going to be huge for us. It’s as big as APEC and IUCN, and we had spinoff meetings after those.”

To be sure, after Hawaii was selected as host to the APEC Leaders’ Meeting and four other events leading up to it, the Hawai‘i Convention Center saw a significant increase in global meetings and participation from global registrants, especially from South Korea, China and other Pacific Rim countries.

Keith Vieira, principal of KV & Associates Hospitality Advisors, said, “FestPAC is a very good piece of business. We will all share in it. There will be pre- and post-stays associated with the festival, which also could draw ancillary and future business.”

Hawaii saw the “APEC impact” after President Barack Obama hosted the APEC leaders summit in Honolulu in 2011, which provided a chance to showcase Hawaii’s business side. Even in 2023, APEC’s impact extended to Hawaii, where the U.S. hosted preliminary meetings in Honolulu before the 2023 APEC Summit in San Francisco.

The 2016 IUCN, which attracted thousands of delegates from 160 countries, was the first time that the event had been held in the U.S. and was the culmination of eight years of effort from Hawaii political leaders and two dozen Hawaii organizations.

Sala said, “I come from the perspective that Hawaii has this very special role to play on a global stage because we have the kind of diverse population that we do. The capacity for us to engage in multilateral discussion at very high levels using culture as the foundation is a journey that we haven’t even yet embarked upon, and I think that’s where the strongest return on the (FestPAC) investment will be.”

For more information about FestPAC or sponsorships, visit festpachawaii.org.