First annual free Kona Steel Guitar Festival at Outrigger resort March 24 and 25

The first annual Kona Steel Guitar Festival will take place March 24 and 25 at the Outrigger Kona Resort and Spa in Keauhou on the Big Island.

The free Kona Steel Guitar Festival is presented by the Hawaiʻi Institute for Music Enrichment and Learning Experiences and the Ke Kula Mele Hawai‘i School of Hawaiian Music.

The festival brings together legendary steel guitarists for a celebration of the Hawaiian Steel Guitar and provides opportunities for Kona area steel guitarists to join steel guitarists from other parts of Hawai‘i and the United States to share their talents.

The Kona Steel Guitar Festival is a new event developed to coincide with the relocation of Keola Beamer’s Aloha Music Camp from Kapa‘a on Kaua‘i to Keauhou.

The Kaua‘i Steel Guitar festival will continue to be presented at the Kapa‘a venue.

The lineup includes Alan Akaka, Pōmai Brown, Al Greene, Jr., Bobby Ingano, Kapono Lopes, Greg Sardinha, Dwight Tokumoto and Geronimo “Geri” Valdriz.

NextGen steel guitarists Enosa Lyman, Makamae Lyu-Napoleon, Isaballa Bertelmann and Pono Fernandez also will perform.

The event’s emcee will be Kimo Kahoano.

For the schedule of events, click here. The events including an unplugged jam session each night for everyone to bring their instrument and portable amplifier if needed.

Visit the Hawaiʻi Institute for Music Enrichment and Learning Experiences website to see how you can help support the festivals. Funding is from the funding from the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the Laurence H. Dorcy Hawaiian Foundation.