The 14th Annual Honolulu Festival’s Friendship Gala
Cuisine from Hawaii’s Famous Restaurants and Awaodori Excitement!
The annual Friendship Gala was held on March 15th, Saturday at the Hawaii Convention Center from 7:00 pm. This is held each year as a fundraiser for the Honolulu Festival Foundation. It is a wonderful opportunity to promote friendship and goodwill among the participating performers from all over the Pacific Rim, our local corporate supporters and the public. 16 of Hawaii’s famous restaurants participated this year sharing their mouth watering cuisine. The Friendship Gala is a fun party where guests can taste a variety of foods and enjoy the entertainment for a good cause.
The guests wait anxiously for the doors to open. The performing groups gather to congratulate each other for a job well done during the day. The Friendship Gala has become an annual reunion for many of the participating groups.
As the doors open the guests line up in front of each restaurant’s booth so that they may enjoy the creative food that each chef has planned and prepared for this annual event. The menu includes appetizers, salads, main entrees and desserts. Each chef and their staff can be seen busily preparing their dishes and serving them as quickly as possible so that the guests won’t have to wait too long in the lines.
The restaurants that represented the 14th Annual Honolulu Festival Friendship Gala are Pineapple Room by Alan Wong, Hoku’s Restaurant at The Kahala Hotel & Resort, Beach House at the Westin Moana, Roy’s Restaurant, Hakone Restaurant in the Hawaii Prince Hotel, Nobu Waikiki, Chef Mavro, The Willows, Blu Water Grill, Tavola Tavola Italian Osteria Restaurant, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Hong Kong Harbour View, Gros Bonnet Culinary Academy, Sammy’s Restaurant, Mariposa at Neiman Marcus and Hy’s Steak House. Some of the restaurants were new and many were those with wonderful histories, however all were fantastic and represented Hawaii’s elite culinary scene very well.
The plates of food all lined up
in a row
The chefs prepare and
serve the dishes quickly
A dessert representing
2008, the Year of the Rat
Pineapple Room’s crew
Sammy’s Restaurant
Gros Bonnet Culinary
Academy
As all the guests were getting full from the delicious food and beverages the official program was about to begin on stage hosted by Kei Segawa and Alice Inoue. It began with the official opening speech by Mayor Mufi Hanneman and then followed by the presentation of the Best Contribution Awards by the President of the Honolulu Festival Foundation Takashi Sugi. As each group’s representative stepped up to the stage to receive their award the crowds cheered and each group took pictures with their award and huge smiles on their faces.
Then the entertainment portion of the program began. The selection of entertainment perfectly represented the theme Pacific Harmony. It included Australia’s Descendance, Republic of China’s Nantou County Formosan Aboriginal Culture Village, Hawaii’s Manoa DNA and Japan’s Suga-Ren from Kochi and Tonosama Ren from Tokushima. As the last group Tonosama Ren performed their Awaodori the audience jumped up on the stage with them and danced along. It was a beautiful sight to see all the various performers
and participants joining in and dancing the Awaodori together to become one unified group representing peace, friendship and goodwill. This is the true image of the Honolulu Festival’s annual Friendship Gala.
Wonderful emcees- Kei Segawa
and Alice Inoue
The Best Contribution Awards
presented to loyal supporters
Pride and joy of receiving
the Best Contribution Award
A quiet moment, Manoa DNA
singing “Nada Sousou”
The powerful performance of
Suga-Ren, their 14th participation
at the Honolulu Festival
President of the Honolulu
Festival Foundation Mr. Sugi
and his wife enjoy Awaodori
with the other participants
