The grassy fields surrounding Pauahi Street in Hilo bustled with activity Saturday morning as a winding procession of floats waited their turn to join the 63rd Annual Merrie Monarch Festival Grand Parade.
Spectators along the parade route sat in lawn chairs under a sea of pop-up tents, waving and cheering as floats slowly crept by. Semi-trucks pulled flatbed trailers adorned with dazzling floral arrangements and featuring performers like drum groups, hula halau (hula schools) and rock bands.
Some floats threw out handfuls of candy, prompting gaggles of young children to leap off the sidewalk and gather up the pieces one by one. Others tossed rolled-up T-shirts and folding paper fans, while a truck bearing the logo of a macadamia nut company handed out small pouches containing a single handful each of the buttery morsels.
Near the head of the cavalcade was the Royal Float — a trailer decked out with lauhala mats and intricate arrangements of anthurium and heliconia flowers, with wicker-chair thrones hosting the 2026 Merrie Monarch Festival Mo‘i Kane (king) Ikaika Marzo and Mo‘i Wahine (queen) Rachel Hualani Loo. The smiling royals wore red sashes and waved to spectators on either side of the street while their retinue of white-robed young men looked on.
Other royalty in attendance included the newly crowned Miss Hula 2026, who sat above the backseat of a white convertible sports car wearing a flowing green and black dress holding an armload of flowers. Twenty-one-year-old Faith Lynn Kealohapau‘ole Paredes of Wailuku, Maui, claimed the title Thursday night with blowout performances at the Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium in Hilo — each one met with thunderous applause.
There was even some political nobility in the parade. 91直播 County Mayor Kimo Alameda led a group of county workers, walking in front of a green ATV adorned with leis and 91直播 state flags and throwing up “double-shakas” to onlookers.
Malcolm Fonoimoana, a 22-year-old Japanese studies student at UH-Hilo, performed with the Hui Okinawa Kobudo Taiko drumming group on its float, beating out a frenzy of catchy rhythms in a style that combines ancient Okinawan martial arts with traditional Japanese drumming.
“All the energy of all the people, all the different performers, all the different walkers, all the different floats,” Fonoimoana said when asked what he enjoys most about drumming for the crowds. He’s been with the group for two years, and performed in the 2024 and 2025 Royal Parades.
“I really enjoy when people in the crowd, they’ll also swing their arms … to pretend like they’re drumming, and it really fills me with energy to see them,” he said. “Of course we’re getting tired but then we see them and they’re like ‘yeah!’ and I’m like ‘yeah! yeah! yeah!’”
Performing for such a joyous occasion, he said, sometimes makes it hard to maintain a serious, stoic martial attitude.
“Our style of taiko is more the kobudo — the martial arts style,” he said. “It’s very strong, all of our faces … our style, particularly, is strong, fierce, very solid. And actually personally I like to smile, so when I see kids smiling I’m like ah, I have to smile! I’m supposed to hold it strong, but I can’t.”
Not far behind the taiko drumming float was Troy Keolanui and his family on foot, who were draped in broad-leafed leis and pulled a wagon stacked high with plants. Keolanui is the co-founder of O.K. Farms in Hilo and has been participating in the parade for half a dozen years.
When asked about the reactions he’s received from spectators, he said it’s been a mixture of appreciation and shyness.
“They love it,” he said. “You know, sometimes you gotta dig it out of them, dig that aloha out of them, you gotta make sure they’re making eye contact with you, but its very special to connect with our community.”
Destinee Pakani represented the island of Oahu on horseback as one of the parade’s pa‘u princesses — an event fixture showcasing traditional 91直播an horsemanship dating back to the 19th Century. There were riders for every one of the major 91直播an Islands, each adorned with the colors and leis associated with their respective island.
“With the amount of work that goes into it, it’s so satisfying to actually be in the parade finally and see it all come together — all of our hard work,” Pakani said.
The most enthusiastic reactions to her display, she said, often come from children mesmerized by the majestic animals.
“A lot of people say thank you just for the acknowledgement and, you know, because I try to say hi to everyone,” she said. “And then the kids — the love for the horses, of course.”
She said her troupe trains for many months just to prepare for the short trot through downtown Hilo.
“It takes a lot,” she said. “A whole year of planning and then pulling it all together in the final weeks because everything has to be fresh. I have a really great ohana support system so they all make it possible.”
Email stefan.verbano@hawaiitribune-herald.com
