The back story
Hula, opera and Islamic art: Hawaiʻi’s arts
The Bishop Museum, the Honolulu Museum of Art and Doris Duke’s Shangri La, Capitol Modern, the Hawaii Theatre of 1922, the opera, the symphony, the Merrie Monarch hula festival and the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival: Hawaiʻi’s arts.
Photo Credit
Image courtesy of © This file was created by Thomas Tunsch. It is not in the public domain and use o · CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia CommonsThe arts of Hawaiʻi begin with hula and chant, and they are alive. Each spring Hilo holds the Merrie Monarch Festival, named for King Kalākaua; in Honolulu, the Bishop Museum keeps the feather cloaks and the Pacific collections, the Honolulu Museum of Art and Doris Duke’s Shangri La look east and west, and the stages of the Hawaii Theatre, the opera and the symphony fill the season.
Hula
The Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo, now in its sixty-fourth year, is the great gathering of hula; tickets go fast, and its nights are streamed live (the festival’s site). In Waikīkī, the Aloha Festivals open each September; in 2026 they celebrated 80 years (the festival’s site).
The museums
The Bishop Museum holds Hawaiʻi’s natural and cultural history; the Honolulu Museum of Art and its Doris Duke-founded Shangri La Museum of Islamic Art, Culture & Design hold the art; Capitol Modern, the Hawaii State Art Museum, shows the state’s own collection with no entry charge (the museums’ sites).
The stages
The Hawaii Theatre has been part of Honolulu’s cultural life since 1922; Hawaiʻi Opera Theatre has produced more than 175 main-stage operas since 1961; the Hawaiʻi Symphony Orchestra plays through the season (their sites).
Time a visit for the Aloha Festivals in September or the film festival in November.
Film
The Hawaiʻi International Film Festival, in its 46th edition, brings Asian and Pacific cinema to Honolulu each November (its site); Kualoa Ranch’s valley has been in more than 200 films and television shows.
Our advice: book the Merrie Monarch nights the moment tickets open, or watch the live stream.
Why it's on our list
- Hula
- The museums
- The stages
- Film
Location
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