Hawaiian Partners with Merrie Monarch Festival to Showcase Hula’s Beauty, Legacy on New Website

HONOLULU – April 05, 2010 - The world’s premier festival celebrating hula – the Merrie Monarch Festival – now has a world-class website,

www.merriemonarch.com, showcasing its culture, people and artistry for fans of hula worldwide.

 

The Merrie Monarch Festival begins this week with the legendary, sold-out hula competition taking place April 8-10 at Edith Kanaka‘ole Tennis Stadium in Hilo. A link to the live television broadcast of the competition on KFVE-TV can be accessed via the Merrie Monarch website.

 

Funded by Hawaiian Airlines and developed by The Kukui Media Group and Design Logix, the new website is rich with captivating content, including vivid imagery in video and photos, plus historical and contemporary information to tell the story of the Merrie Monarch Festival and the people perpetuating Hawaii’s tradition of cultural expression through dance.

 

Mark Dunkerley, Hawaiian’s president and CEO, commented, “Hawaiian Airlines is proud of its longstanding support for the Merrie Monarch Festival and we wanted to help the Festival expand its reach to fans of hula and Hawaii’s culture around the world. We are confident this new website will help inspire new generations of followers worldwide.”

 

Roland Yamamoto, the website’s producer, added, “Our intent was to create an engaging website that is true to the Merrie Monarch Festival and serves the hula community. By celebrating the hula, we feel that we are only following the vision of the Festival’s leader, the late Auntie Dottie Thompson.”

 

An impressive feature of the Merrie Monarch’s new website is an array of backstage videos showing the practice and discipline that goes into the art of hula.

 

New photos and videos will be added throughout the Festival week that will complement photos from past hula competitions, information about the Festival’s roots and past winners, and a selection of available Merrie Monarch products, such as the 2010 Festival DVD, t-shirts, posters, and programs.

 

 

About Hawaiian Airlines

 

Now in its 81

st year of continuous service for Hawaii, Hawaiian is the state’s biggest and longest-serving airline, as well as the largest provider of passenger air service to Hawaii from the state’s primary visitor markets on the U.S. mainland. Hawaiian offers nonstop service to Hawaii from 10 gateway cities in the Western U.S., along with more than 150 daily jet flights between the Hawaiian Islands. For more information, visit HawaiianAirlines.com.