29th Annual St. John's Kula Festival

Article From: The MauiWeekly

The 29th Annual St. John’s Kula Festival will be held on Saturday, Sept. 24, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in lovely, cool Kēōkea. This festival is always greatly anticipated by Maui residents and visitors alike as a tradition that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
This year, a new layout will facilitate easier access to all the food, fun, fundraising, entertainment and events, but will still showcase the spectacular views of the valley and coasts and offer everything that everyone has come to expect from this event.

The festival will showcase delicious food, including Portuguese bean soup, waffles with fresh Kula strawberries, a wonderful vegan curry, grilled-on-the-spot hamburgers made from Maui Cattle Company beef, fudge, plate lunches, fresh Chinese chicken salad and more, as well as cold drinks and coffee.

Fresh Kula produce, plants and cut flowers, baked goods, a gift shop with handmade items and an assortment of treasures, beautiful gift baskets, a wide variety of crafters, children’s games, free face painting, a silent auction and live entertainment will be offered all day long.

The festival stage will showcase Uluwehi Guerrero’s choir, Na Leo Lani O Maui; Derick Sebastian; the Hula Honeys; and SideTracks. Entertainment will also include the Future Stars of Maui—Gabrielle Goebbert and Austin Carvalho (together known as “The Flow”), The Mill with Christy, Lilly and Zoe and a surprise or two.

Proceeds from this annual event are usually shared with a variety of local nonprofit organizations each year, which are selected by the church, but this year, the organizers decided to focus on one nonprofit. This year’s beneficiary is Hospice Maui; specifically, to contribute to building a 12-bed hospice unit, Hale Ho‘olu‘olu, a place for comfort, compassion and care.

The vision for Hale Ho‘olu‘olu is more than bricks and mortar, construction and staff jobs—it is to help patients live out their lives more peacefully, with more dignity and with less pain, and to provide comfort for the families whose grief is then lightened. It is the highly skilled compassionate team of Hospice Maui caregivers who assist the patients and their families through this transition. Their ideality is a community pulling together to invest collectively in Hale Ho‘olu‘olu, making a peaceful end-of-life experience a reality for all of Maui. Learn more about the hale at www.hospicemaui.org/hooluolu.

St John’s Episcopal Church has been a community center since its beginning in 1900 and continues by offering its facilities for a number of community organizations, operating a pantry that distributes boxes of food to families in emergency situations, and holding a Fellowship Dinner on the last Friday of every month where all are welcome to come and enjoy a free meal and friendship.

Admission is free, but donations are welcomed. For more information, or to contribute to the auction or volunteer your time, call (808) 878-1485.

St. John’s is located at 8992 Kula Highway across from Kēōkea Park.