Mākaha Sons will celebrate 50 years of Hawaiian music with a performance alongside four Maui hula schools at Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea this October. Their signature harmonies are part of a three-day programme that also brings together cultural practitioners, local makers and a crewmember from Hōkūleʻa’s landmark 1976 voyage.
Four Seasons has announced that its fifth Festivals of Aloha weekend will take place from Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October 2026. Curated by the resort’s Director of Hawaiian Programs, Aunty Mopsie Tuivaioge, the celebration includes complimentary programming for resort guests and community members.
The resort sits on Wailea Beach in South Maui, with festival events spread between its lobby, ballroom and other indoor spaces. Guided visits to a newly unveiled garden honouring Queen Liliʻuokalani add another dimension to the weekend, connecting Hawaiian history with plants, hula and the surrounding Honuaʻula district.
Friday: cultural practitioners and Hawaiian falsetto
A traditional opening ceremony begins the festival at 9.30am on Friday 23 October. Hawaiian practitioners will be in the lobby from 10am to 2pm, while the Live Aloha Market and a pop-up from Hawaiian lifestyle brand MANAOLA run from 10am to 5pm.
The market brings together 22 local vendors in the Wailea Room; MANAOLA’s shoppable pop-up occupies the Molokini Room. Both return on Saturday and Sunday, so there’s room to fit them around the performances and presentations rather than cover everything on the first morning.
The Carmen Hulu Lindsey Leo Haʻihaʻi Falsetto Contest takes place that evening, with ballroom doors opening at 5.30pm for a 6pm start. Dedicated to women’s Hawaiian falsetto singing, the competition provides a counterpart to a tradition conventionally presented through male contests.
Judging extends beyond vocal quality and technique to Hawaiian-language pronunciation, musicianship, and the singers’ knowledge and explanation of their mele. Those criteria give language and understanding a place alongside the performance itself. Admission is free.
Saturday: Mākaha Sons and four generations-spanning hula traditions
Hula Is the Heartbeat takes centre stage on Saturday 24 October, with Mākaha Sons marking their 50th anniversary. The group’s five-decade commitment to Hawaiian music gives the evening a particular significance within a festival devoted to living cultural traditions.
Four Maui hula schools will join them: Hālau Kekuaokala‘au‘ala‘iliahi, Hālau Ke‘alaokamaile, Hālau Kauluokalā and Hālau Nā Lei Kaumaka O Uka. Miss Aloha Hula 2026 will also make a special guest appearance. Ballroom doors open at 5pm, with the performance beginning at 6pm.
Hawaiian practitioners return to the lobby from 10am to 2pm that day, and both the Live Aloha Market and MANAOLA pop-up open from 10am to 5pm. Saturday’s daytime programme also includes a presentation on Hōkūleʻa, offering a chance to hear about a defining voyage from someone who sailed on it.
Hōkūleʻa’s first voyage, remembered by Penny Martin
He Wa’a Koa runs from 11am to noon on Saturday in Salon A, marking 50 years since Hōkūleʻa sailed to Tahiti and returned. Penny Martin, the guest speaker, was among the two women on the historic voyage; she sailed on the return leg from Tahiti to Hawaiʻi.
Martin was 24 at the time. In a 2023 interview, she told Hawaiʻi Public Radio about leaving Tahiti on 4 July and completing the homeward passage in 22 days. Her recollections included watch duties, steering, seasickness and the moment mountain peaks appeared as the canoe approached Hawaiʻi.
“You’re standing on the canoe in the footprints of your ancestors, looking through their eyes. This is what it was like,” she said.
Martin has also worked as an educator, helping younger generations on Molokai connect with the canoe and its cultural legacy. Her presentation brings that continuing work into the anniversary programme alongside her experience of the original journey.
The Queen’s Garden: plants, history and hula
The festival includes guided tours of the new Queen’s Garden, Uluhaimalama, in the resort’s interior courtyard. Four Seasons unveiled the space in September, dedicating it to Queen Liliʻuokalani, Hawaiʻi’s last reigning monarch, and opening it to resort guests, residents and other visitors.
Six self-guided educational stations connect the Queen’s life with Hawaiian history, hula, plants and Honuaʻula. They explore the mountain-to-sea relationship between land and water, the Hawaiian Kingdom’s final years, the Queen’s imprisonment and her legacy as a composer whose mele continue through cultural practice.
Crown flowers, roses, pikake and puakenikeni grow alongside native species associated with the district’s cultural and agricultural history. The resort says plants gifted from, and descended from plants at, the original Uluhaimalama garden on Oʻahu create a botanical connection to the garden the Queen founded in 1894.
The section honouring that original garden was planted beneath a full moon, echoing the Queen’s preparations before its dedication. At the courtyard’s centre is a pā noa, a dedicated space for hula, ceremony and cultural gatherings. Its name, Puʻuwaikilanuiokalani, is translated by the resort as “courageous heart of the heavenly one.”
Sunday: hula lineages and contemporary music
A Kumu Hula Panel takes place from 9am to 12.30pm on Sunday 25 October in Salon A. The discussion will explore the preservation of Hawaiian hula lineages being perpetuated on Maui, giving visitors a chance to hear about the teaching and continuity behind the dance traditions featured during the weekend.
Sunday also offers an earlier opportunity to shop: the Live Aloha Market and MANAOLA pop-up both run from 8am to 2pm, in the Wailea Room and Molokini Room respectively.
Sounds of the Sea closes the weekend with contemporary Hawaiian group Kūikawā, celebrating its third album release as part of the Mele and Moʻolelo series. Seating opens at 5pm, allowing those attending the morning panel time between the two events.
Planning a stay or community visit
Complimentary off-site parking and round-trip shuttles will operate from Wailea Event Parking, across from Monkeypod off Wailea Ike Drive. The shuttle hours are:
- Friday 23 October: 9am–10pm.
- Saturday 24 October: 9.30am–midnight.
- Sunday 25 October: 8am–3pm and 4pm–10pm.
Sunday’s shuttle service has a one-hour afternoon break, worth noting if you plan to return for Sounds of the Sea. The festival is part of a wider Festivals of Aloha programme across Maui Nui; Hāna’s weeklong celebration runs from 17–24 October, while Makawao’s rodeo weekend overlaps Wailea on 23–25 October.
Four Seasons also offers resort guests complimentary year-round cultural activities, including lei making, outrigger canoe excursions and hula lessons. For accommodation around the festival dates, you can book a stay at Four Seasons Maui or contact the resort on +1 808 874 8000.
