MINUTES OF THE COMMISSION ON THE 13TH FESTIVAL OF
PACIFIC ARTS & CULTURE (FestPAC) MEETINGMONDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 2023 AT 03:00 P.M.
HYBRID VIA ZOOM
Commission Members Present were:
Shanty Asher
Snowbird Bento
Maka Casson-Fisher
Māpuana de Silva
Stacy FerreiraSen. Jarrett Keohokāhole
Jamie Lum
Guests:Staff:-City & County of Honolulu
Community
Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA) Designee
Community Member At-Large
Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA)
Hawaiʻi State Senate
Department of Business, Economic Development,and Tourism (DBEDT)

Aaron SalāJune Matsumoto-Festival DirectorPacific Islands InstituteJohn Cole-

Office of the Attorney General-Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority (HTA) Designee
Governor’s Designee
Hawai‘i State House of Representatives

Apologies:
Kalani Ka‘anā‘anā, Chair
Makana McClellan
Rep. Richard Onishi

CALL TO ORDER
The meeting was called to order by Acting Chair (AC) Jarrett Keohokālole at 03:00 p.m., whowelcomed everyone present via ZOOM.
WEHENAAC Keohokālole called upon Commissioner Ferreira to introduce Kai Markell from the Office ofHawaiian Affiars to provide the wehena (opening). Mr. Kai Markell provided a pule (prayer) inʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language).

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, December 18, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 2 of 5

ATTENDANCEAC Keohokālole conducted the roll-call attendance. Commissioner Asher, Commissioner Bento,Commissioner Casson-Fisher, Commissioner de Silva, Commissioner Ferreira, Commissioner
Keohokālole, and Commissioner Lum, were present via Zoom.
Chair Kaʻanāʻanā and Commissioners McClellan and Onishi were excused.
Deputy Attorney General John Cole, Festival Director (FD) Aaron Salā, and HTA support staffand HTA designee for today’s meeting: Maka Casson-Fisher was present via zoom
PUBLIC TESTIMONY ON AGENDA ITEMSNo testimony was received in advance of the day’s meeting. The chair invited members of thepublic to testify on the agenda items. Hearing none, he continued with agenda items.
REPORT ON PERMITTED INTERACTIONS, PURSUANT TO ACT 103, SESSIONLAWS OF HAWAIʻI 2021
The Administrative Committee did meet and the Venue and Programming Committee did not
meet. Hearing no additional meetings, the Chair continued with the next agenda item.
APPROVAL OF THE NOVEMBER 20, 2023 MEETING MINUTES
The minutes were previously distributed and reviewed by Commissioners. AC Keohokālole
requested a motion to adopt the November 20, 2023 minutes. Commissioner Bento motioned,
and it was Seconded by Commissioner Ferreira. With no additional discussion, AC Keohokālole
conducted a roll-call vote. Acting Chair Keohokālole, Asher, Bento, Casson-Fisher, de Silva,Ferreira, and Lum voted in favor of approving the unamended minutes of the November 6th2023 meeting. Commissioners McClellan and Onishi were excused. Motion carried.
PRESENTATION, DISCUSSION AND/OR ACTION REGARDING THE FESTIVAL
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
Festival Director Salā provided an update regarding the following items:
1) Program and Content
2) Marketing and Promotion
3) Volunteer Logistics
4) Logistics and Operations
Festival Director (FD) asked the Commission for a bit of reprieve to give an update on budgetingat the next meeting, just after the new year as he is working through the budget and contractual
items with Commissioner Lum at DBEDT.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, December 18, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 3 of 5

In regards to Program and Content, the Festival Director shared that the performance stageschedules are in full draft mode. The waʻa carvers and Heritage Program – waʻa housed at
Kualoa and carvers at Bishop Museum, Heritage programming at the Convention Center andthen working with Capital Modern, Hawaiʻi State Art Museum and Bishop Museum on their
specific schedules.
Festival Director and team are working with Events International to work out the logistics ofeach actual venue, build out of stages, etcetera. He will bring that to the Commission in January.
FD shared that the Council for Pacific Arts and Culture (CPAC) met last week. They areworking through some of the country asks that were brought up during the working group andCPAC meetings.
In terms of marketing and promotion, the US Embassy in New Zealand Media Tour, hosted by
USINDOPACOM was on November 30th that included media from New Zealand and Samoa,
New Zealand and Samoa, inclusive of News Hub Discovery, staff Radio New Zealand, Pacificnewsroom, Pacific Media Network and the New Zealand Herald and Samoan TV, there werethirteen members of the media in the room and they’re now following up with some of therequests for interviews.
Starting in January, in partnership with Patty Look at the Fund Development Group. The Festival
Director and team will be hosting philanthropic engagements every month between January andMay. This is in partnership with former Smithsonian curator at the Folklife Festival, but alsowith the Hawaiʻi Community Foundation to talk about socializing the festival with their donors.
In terms of logistics and operations, the team has received 1,945 intent to participate delegate
forms from 23 of 28 countries. There is expectation for 27 of 28 countries to participate. Theteam has not yet heard anything from Vanuatu.
The Governor’s cabinet meeting happened on December 4th. It is a monthly meeting of the fullcabinet members or designee that are responsible for attending this meeting. It is an opportunity
for the FD to update on operations but also to gather and garner the participation of all of thegovernment state departments. To that end, the FD has commenced working groups. The Bio
Security Working Group, holds a monthly meeting and is working with Jimmy Collins at theHawaiʻi State Office of Homeland Security to commence a security and protocol working group.
She has submitted a SEAR (special events assessment rating), which will probably change as westart to assess who is coming, which personnel is coming, which Heads of State, heads ofgovernments and Culture ministers are coming that will affect the SEAR rating.
Festival Director shared that he will be bringing on a Director of Programs for the Festival. Pua
Sterling starts with Gravitas Pasifika on January 8th. FD is very excited to bring her aboard. She
has tremendous amount of expertise and knowledge and has attended 2 festivals in the past as aas a member of the Hawaiʻi delegation. FD Salā will formally introduce her to the Commission
at the next meeting.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, December 18, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
Page 4 of 5

FD Salā requested to defer the followings agenda item on volunteer logistics. His goal is to sharewith the Commission a full presentation on the digital platform and have Data House come to themeeting, much like Linda did, to share on what the digital platform will look like - theregistration portal, how it will facilitate programming, how it will help to facilitate all delegates
and their information and how it will facilitate volunteer registration.
Acting Chair Keohokālole said, “ if there are no reservations, we will defer action on agenda
item number 7 and move to Agenda item number 8.”
June Matsumoto (JM) of Pacific Islands Institute (PII) began with sharing about the logistics onaccommodations. FD Salā stated that we have 1945 delegates, with the possibility of a slightincrease in number. Presently, PII is in the process of contracting with the University of Hawaiʻi,
holding 1534 beds. The check in date is June 2nd and the checkout date for for theseaccommodations will be June 17th for 15 nights. PII is also holding an additional 125 rooms at
the East West Center. These rooms are available to us for a little bit longer period starting on
June the 1st, going through June the 18th with the possibility of increasing the number of beds.
The remainder of the required rooms PII is identifying are at different hotels in the Waikīkī area.
To date, PII has identified 350 beds at four different hotels, the locations and the criteria foridentifying these hotels is the proximity to the Convention Center. Looking at hotels that arewithin 10 to 15 minutes walking distance from the center and have been used by otherconventions.
JM continued to share about transportation logistics. PII is trying to request as many schoolbuses as possible to stay within budget, but shares that the potential motor coaches may benecessary just for the capacity to be able to carry luggage in and any moving materials that needs
to be moved between UH and the Convention Center especially for the festival village
movement. JM concludes that they will have more details for the Commission in the comingmonth.
Commissioner de Silva on the topic of cost saving, suggested that PII look into using the schoolbuses and a luggage transportation company. “Most of the time, the festivals that I've been, ourluggage has been transferred by separate trucks, luggage trucks, instead of on the buses with us.”
JM: Yeah, we can look at the budget and the use of school buses and trucks vs motor coaches
and make the cost comparison. We also understand that there's some flexibility needed. And wewill address and provide the options at that time for the Commission to discuss.
Commissioner Asher shared concern about the Department Of Education still being challenged
with school buses and drivers shortages. JM shared that the actual school year is out during thedates of the festival.
Commissioner de Silva added: The other thing I'm a little afraid of is if we give them the nice air
conditioned motor coaches up front. They're going to be expecting that the whole festival, and I'drather just give them the basics all the way through and not have that comparison. Thank you.

Minutes of the Commission on the 13th Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture
Monday, December 18, 2023 at 3:00 p.m.
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Acting Chair Keohokālole asked FD Salā to briefly describe the actions intended around theKamehamehade Parade. Commissioner de Silva shared that we could let them (delegates) know
about it. They could find their way from the convention center and find their way along the routeto watch the parade if they wanted to, and if there are performances planned for the end atKapiʻolani Park, everybody's welcome to walk there and participate. FD Salā confirmed that theCommission is not responsible for the transportation into the parade and will have more
information at future logistics reports.
The full presentation and discussion can be viewed on the recording. No actions taken by theCommission on this agenda item and Acting Chair moved to the next agenda item.
Presentation, Discussion and/or Action Regarding Administrative Committee Update
Commissioner Lum shared that the Committee met on November 24th. The main area ofdiscussion was the SPC FestPAC post readiness assessment. FD Salā received a draft andbrought it to the committee for further discussion. FD will be preparing a response and bringing
it back to the committee.
Hearing no questions by the Commission on this agenda item, Acting Chair moved to the nextagenda item.
Presentation, Discussion and/or Action Regarding Venues and Programming Committee
Update
The committee did not meet prior to today’s Commission meeting. Hearing no questions by theCommission on this agenda item, Acting Chair moved on to agenda item number 11, publictestimony.
Public Testimony on Agenda Items
Hearing no testimony, the Acting Chair moved on to announcements, agenda item number 12.
Announcements
A draft schedule was sent to Commissioners for feedback. Festival Director will provide
suggestions to Maka due to technical visits from the SPC.
Next meeting will be held virtually on Monday January 8th at 3p.Hearing no further
announcements, the Acting Chair adjourned the meeting at 3:38PM
Respectfully Submitted,Kalani Kaʻanāʻanā
ChairDateFestival Director Report
Aaron J. Salā08 January 2023

Order of Report• Budget & Financial Status• Program and Content• FestPAC Operations• Digital Platform (festpachawaii.org)

South Pacific Arts Festival – Suva, Fiji (1972)
Photograph(s) by Nick DeWolf

Budget and Financial Update• 2023 Legislative appropriation• 2023 Governor's Discretionary Fund
• Incoming:o Matson ($250k + $10k)
o Smith Family ($250k)
o Hawaiʻi Community Foundation ($100k)• Pending: OHA ($1.5m), HTA Signature Events ($750k)• Philanthropic engagements• Kamehameha Schools
South Pacific Arts Festival – Suva, Fiji (1972)
Photograph(s) by Nick DeWolf

Program and Content• Pua Sterling (Dir of Programs, 8 Jan 2024)• Intent to Participate – 1,945 (24 of 28 countries)• “Our Sea of Islands” Exhibit Call
• 312 entries from 68 artists• CLOSED 12/31/23, jurying process begins• Artistic Program Leads Standing Meeting

FestPAC Operations• Festival Ops Biweekly Standing Meetingso Event Production, PR/Comms, Media, Security/Protocol, Biosecurity,Logistics, Hawaiʻi Convention Center, DBEDT• Biosecurity WG Standing• Security and Protocol WG• Comms/PR Standing• Consular Affairs (NZ, 10 Jan)• Heads of Delegation townhalls• IndoPacom engagement

Digital Platform and Volunteer• festpachawaii.org• Kim Vo, DataHouse

#festpac13

Mahalofestpachawaii.org

FestPac Hawaiʻi@festpachawaii@FestpacHawaii