How to Watch Merrie Monarch 2021 on Netflix
After one year of broadcast-only competition in an empty Edith Kanaka'ole Stadium, the Merrie Monarch Festival will return to a live audience April 20-23.
Organizers say the move came after months of developing safety guidelines and a plan for broadcasting the event.
Merrie Monarch is a weeklong celebration of Hawaiian culture on the Big Island during the week after Easter Sunday. It attracts thousands to the annual hula competition.
1. Tune in on K5
On a cold Tuesday night in March, kumu hula Meleana Manuel and her halau rehearse for the Merrie Monarch Festival. They are preparing for the first time they will be in the stadium with a live audience. That’s a big change from the halau’s usual practice practices, which have been held outdoors in parking lots and driveways.
It also means they will be wearing masks, which makes it harder to see their faces clearly during performances. It’s a challenge for both kumu hula and dancers to learn how to convey emotion with masks, says Kumu Hula 'Iliahi Paredes of Maui’s Halau Kekuaokala'au'ala'iliahi.
He expects his students to practice showing their emotions through their faces during Merrie Monarch so that they can communicate the story of each mele with their masks. But he doesn’t want them to exaggerate their expressions, since it might confuse the judges.
That’s why kumu hula have taken to practicing on Zoom and performing at hotel and craft fair shows in addition to their regular practice sessions during Merrie Monarch week. Organizers have worked hard to make sure that all the hula that’s performed at the festival is safe and that participants don’t contract any disease during the event.
Organizers are also making sure all halau receive vaccinations before they arrive on island, and that they follow new COVID-19 protocols. In addition to a five-day isolation period, they will be required to take COVID-19 tests before entering the Edith Kanaka'ole Stadium grounds for any performance.
Kumu hula and halau alike are working to ensure the Merrie Monarch stays alive in 2021. It’s a lot of work, but organizers and kumu hula are determined to make it happen.
The competition, which will include Miss Aloha Hula (Thursday), Hula Kahiko (Friday) and Hula
2. Watch on KFVE
The Merrie Monarch hula competition is back for a three-day run this year. This awe-inspiring event consists of three competitive events: Miss Aloha Hula (Thursday, July 1), Hula Kahiko (Friday, July 2) and Hula 'Auana (Saturday, July 3).
The competition has always been a hot ticket among hula halau from across the Hawaiian Islands and beyond. The event has also grown to include other hula related attractions such as the Royal Parade and various craft fairs throughout the weekend.
Aside from the competition itself, you can watch the merrie monarch 2021 on local television station KFVE (channel 6). This station is one of MyNetworkTV's local network affiliates, and it is available to subscribers of Spectrum, Hawaiian Tel and DirecTV, in addition to those with Dish Network.
It is located in Honolulu, Hawaii, and shares studios with KGMB (channel 5) and KHNL (channel 13). It serves a 7,954 square mile area, making it the largest station in Hawaii.
In addition to broadcasting news and weather, KFVE has a robust line up of entertainment programming. The station has a large library of original series and movies.
The company's newest digital channel, "Hawaiian News Now," will feature local and national stories as well as Hawaii's best local talent. The station will also offer live streaming video to its subscribers on the go.
To get a taste of what you can expect, tune in to KFVE's website and sign up for their free trial! You can then access a variety of shows and watch them on the go with their mobile apps. This includes the new HD channel, which will be available on all iOS and Android devices!
3. Watch on YouTube
The Merrie Monarch Festival is a cultural celebration in Hilo that honors King David Kalakaua, a popular Hawaiian monarch who was devoted to the local culture. He started a campaign to revive customs that were suppressed by Christian missionaries. Today, the festival is celebrated in April each year and is marked by famous hula competitions that bring together dancers from around the world.
One of the most popular events at the festival is the hula competition, which takes place on three nights during the week-long festivities. Tickets sell out months in advance, and the halau (troupes) prepare their schedules around the event.
Thousands of people at home in the islands and throughout the world learn about Hawaiian culture through the Merrie Monarch Festival. The festival celebrates the hula, Hawaiian music, clothing and crafts, as well as the history of Hawaii's people.
It is a weeklong celebration of the Hawaiian people that includes a hula competition, arts fair, cultural demonstrations and parade. It also is a time for family and friends to come together and enjoy the Hawaiian culture.
Since its founding, the Merrie Monarch Festival has been a key contributor to the renaissance of Hawaiian culture and traditions. It is now a world-renowned hula competition, and it continues to celebrate and teach the art of hula to generations of people throughout the world.
In its early years, the Merrie Monarch Festival was a lavish cultural celebration that featured a holoku ball, coronation ceremonies and barbershop quartet contests. It was a huge success, and it helped Hilo recover from the devastating tsunami of 1964 and the sugar cane industry's financial crisis.
However, despite the success of the Merrie Monarch Festival, its founders were worried that it was losing momentum. Aunty Dottie Thompson and her husband, Uncle George Na'ope, wanted to keep the festival going, but it was not clear how to make it successful.
They reached out to kumu hula and respected dancers on O'ahu, who told them that the hula community wanted a competition. So in 1971, they invited nine halau to compete in the hula kahiko (ancient) and hula 'auana (modern) disciplines.
4. Watch on Netflix
The big daddy of hula competitions is the annual Merrie Monarch. Taking place at Hilo’s Edith Kanakaole Stadium, the week long event is jam packed with high octane events and entertainment including the granddaddy of them all – the wahine and kane hula contest. But for the average Joe and Jane hula fanatic who has no time to make the trek out to the island of honolulu, the next best thing is watching the action on screen via Netflix. With a nifty new app to be found in the apps section of your mobile device or on the web at home, you’ll be up and dancing before you know it. You can even get the most out of your nightly viewing by having a glass of wine at the ready.
