Welcome!

The 2023 Hawai‘i Island Steel Guitar Experience featuring the Hawai‘i Island Steel Guitar Festival, will be held at the Mauna Lani, Auberge Resorts Collection, on Thursday through Sunday, December 14-17, 2023.

The Experience begins on Thursday, December 14, with performances throughout the day at the Surf Shack and HāLani Restaurant. The Hawai‘i Island Steel Guitar Festival's ho‘olaule‘a concert will be held on Friday, December 15, followed by a public kanikapila. The hotel's monthly Twilight at Kalāhuipua‘a program featuring the Hawaiian steel guitar will be on Saturday, December 16, and include performances by NextGen steel guitarists. Sunday brunch entertainment will be offered on the lawn of the HāLani Restaurant.

The 2023 experience will also include school visits, workshops, Open Stage performances, a vintage steel guitar exhibit, and hands-on opportunities for festival guests.

Featured performers will include Alan Akaka, Pomai Brown, Ethan Goore, Bobby Ingano, Kapono Lopes, Mālie Lyman, Dwight Tokumoto, and Geronimo "Geri" Valdriz from Maui. Pomai Brown, Dwight Tokumoto, and Ethan Goore are from Hawai‘i Island.

Also performing will be NextGen steel guitarists Hi‘ipoi Lindsay, Enosa Lyman, Tai Misailidis, Isabella Bertelmann, and Makamae Lyu-Napoleon.

The festival will be presented free to the public by the Mauna Lani, Auberge Resorts Collection and the Hawaii Institute for Music Enrichment and Learning Experiences (HIMELE) in association with the Ke Kula Mele Hawai‘i School of Hawaiian Music, with grants and support from corporate partners, and private donors. Support will be provided in part by the Hawai‘i State Foundation on Culture and the Arts (SFCA), through appropriations from the Legislature of the State of Hawai‘i or grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), and the Laurence H. Dorcy Hawaiian Foundation.