2022 Event Info

The 2022 Waikīkī Steel Guitar Week featured nightly one-hour performances on Monday through Thursday, July 11-14, 2022, beginning at 5:30 P.M. Each night featured performances by a different steel guitar master or steel guitar ensemble including the NextGen steel guitarists and musicians from Ke Kula Mele Hawai‘i School of Hawaiian Music.

Ke Kula Mele Hawai‘i NextGen steel guitarists Isabella Bertelmann, Makamae Lyu-Napoleon, Pono Fernandez, Joey Misailidis, Tai Misailidis, and Mālie Lyman, were featured, accompanied by Alan Akaka on guitar.

The inaugural presentation of the Japan-Hawaiian Steel Guitar Festival occured on Friday, July 15, 2022, beginning at 4:00 P.M. and featured steel guitarists from Japan. This festival was dedicated to and presented in the honor of Japanese steel guitarist Tadashi Arakawa, one of the Japan-based event planners, who passed away earlier this year.

The 4^th Annual Waikīkī Steel Guitar Week culminated in the 12^th Annual Waikīkī Steel Guitar Festival on Saturday, July 16, 2022, with morning and afternoon programs. The program included popular Hawaiian steel guitarists troughout the week and on Saturday. Saturday's festival performances were livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube.

Waikīkī Steel Guitar Week was free and open to the public. Parking was available at the Royal Hawaiian Center parking garage. Standard parking rates applied with validated parking available with $10 purchase from any center merchant.