LiC: Kulia Roots Fest

While looking through my wallet to figure out what was for lunch, I noticed two things - a severe lack of cash and a ticket stub to the Kulia Roots Fest. A few seconds later, I remember what I went for...

A fund-raising event for the Hawaiian Language Department. Selling tickets at 20 dollars a piece, at least 500-600 people showing up, a number of reggae bands and local superstars Ooklah the Moc to keep things hot, as well as places Da Spot providing food to the crowds. The music was good, if underwhelming in the beginning - a slow buildup with a mix of Patois and Standard American English in songs from Mainland bands to a mostly Pidgin in the local bands, with Hawaiian being used by MCs throughout the event. And an amazing event - most of the people there could understand everything being spoken! But in addition to the languages, there was the music, and the crowd going wild for the music. Always interesting to see a fundraising show for a language being dominated by other languages, although there was a lot of people that seemed to be able to speak a minimum of Hawaiian to converse between each other.