Your Guide to the Perfect Weekend in Honolulu: July 14–15, 2018

It’s the weekend of festivals and fairs, and we’re bringing you a lineup filled with juicy summertime mangoes, infectious ʻukulele jams and a celebration of Honolulu’s best.

July 11, 2018

Cassidy Keola,

PHOTO: AARON K. YOSHINO

2018 Best of Honolulu Festival Presented by American Savings Bank

Saturday, July 14, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Head down to Honolulu Hale for our third annual Best of Honolulu Festival presented by American Savings Bank. Check out the various booths featuring the best places in the city to shop, eat, relax and more. Families can spend the day mopping up ʻono grinds, shopping at a marketplace and enjoying a star-studded entertainment lineup featuring the Tonga Sisters (watch the Kahuku sisters’ amazing ’90s mashup, performed on The Ellen DeGeneres Show this past February), Karlie Goya and more. When the kids need a break from the fun-filled keiki zone, bring them down to the HONOLULU Family booth and enter them into the 2019 Cover Kids search. Keiki ages 1 to 12 will be photographed by a professional photographer, and the $10 fee will be waived.

Free, Honolulu Hale, 530 S. King St. For more details, go here.

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56^th Annual Hawaiʻi State Farm Fair

Saturday, July 14 and Sunday, July 15

Learn “What’s Growin’ On” in Hawaiʻi’s agriculture and farming industry at Kualoa Ranch. A longtime tradition on Oʻahu, the fair features a “Buy Local, It Matters” education pavilion, fresh produce at Kamehameha Schools’ country market and plant sale and live farm animals at the 4-H Livestock tent. Enjoy festive food and entertainment, plus contests such as watermelon eating, corn husking and chili-pepper eating. The Keiki Farm Hands exhibit offers little ones hands-on farming experience with crop planting and harvesting activities, a chicken incubator and coop, keiki-size farming tools and more.

$5 for general public, free for kids and students with valid student ID. Kualoa Ranch, 49-560 Kamehameha Highway, Kāne‘ohe. For more details, go here.

PHOTO: COURTESY OF MANGOES AT THE MOANA

Mangoes at the Moana

Saturday, July 14, noon to 9 p.m.

It wouldn’t be summer in Hawaiʻi without fresh sweet mangoes. Celebrate the 10^th anniversary of Mangoes at the Moana with the popular Mākaha Mangoes Farmers Market, cooking demonstrations and more. Enter the Best Mango Contest, attend an open-forum seminar led by agriculture experts and visit the keiki area for hands-on activities. Guests 21 and older can also enjoy the first-ever Mangolicious Sunset Reception, featuring chefs from Koko Head Café, MW Restaurant, The Pig & The Lady, 12th Ave Grill, Hawai’i Convention Center, Hy’s Steakhouse, RumFire, The Modern Honolulu, and Tiki’s Grill & Bar and Appetito Craft Pizza & Wine Bar.

$15–$120, The Moana Surfrider, A Westin Resort, 2365 Kalākaua Ave. For more information, go here.

48^th Annual ʻUkulele Festival Hawaiʻi

Sunday, July 15, 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Each year, ʻukulele master and festival founder Roy Sakuma gathers musicians and acts from all over the world to bring laughter and love through the music of the ʻukulele. Expected to attract more than 10,000 people, the festival is hosted by Hawaiʻi ambassador of aloha Danny Kaleikini and features an ʻukulele orchestra of more than 600 students, according to the festival. The lineup includes local and world acts such as Hawaiʻi’s own Jake Shimabukuro, the New Zealand ʻUkulele Senior Squad and Japan’s LeaLea ʻUkulele Garden. Food booths, free ʻukulele lessons and giveaways will also be stationed around the park. Worried about traffic? Free parking will be available at Kapi‘olani Community College, with a free shuttle service running to and from the festival from 7:30 a.m. to 6:15 p.m.

Free, Kapiʻolani Park, 3840 Pākī Ave. For more information, go here.

Looking for more things to do? Check out our events calendar.

This article appears in the July 2018 issue of HONOLULU Magazine.