The story
Prince Lot Hula Festival in Honolulu
The Prince Lot Hula Festival is Hawaii's largest non-competitive hula event, held each July at the Frank F. Fasi Civic Grounds in Honolulu. Presented free of charge by the Moanalua Gardens Foundation, it brings together roughly fifteen halau, or hula schools, for a day of exhibition performances honoring Prince Lot Kapuaiwa, later King Kamehameha V, who is credited with reviving hula in the nineteenth century.
Prince Lot Kapuaiwa, who would later reign as King Kamehameha V, spent part of his youth at a family retreat in Moanalua Valley on Oahu, where in the mid-nineteenth century he hosted hula performances at a time when the art form faced serious pressure from Christian missionaries who viewed it as immoral.