Yesterday, together with two other USC Hawai'i Club lu'au directors, I met with the USC Scheduling Office and Bovard Productions for our regular post-lu'au recap meeting. It reminded me that I never posted about our lu'au! So here it is, a bit late, but I still wanted to share a recap of the event I spent pretty much the entire first half of the semester planning (about 40+ hours a week, and this is one of the main reasons my blog never picked up until this month, haha):
The USC Hawai'i Club's 32nd Annual Lu'au, Islands in the Sea: Na Mokupuni I Ke Kai was held on Saturday, March 26, 2011, in the Ronald Tutor Campus Center Grand Ballroom. Over 500 guests attended, including USC students, faculty, staff, and parents, college students from other universities (Occidental, LMU, UW, Pepperdine, UCLA, among others), and Hawai'i transplants living in Southern California. We were pleased with the attendance, as it was considerably more than last year, and we got a lot of positive feedback about our event. There were several changes this year as compared to previous years:
Held indoors (instead of at McCarthy Quad)
Tables for all guests (instead of only chairs)
Cheaper admission for non-USC students
Many more corporate and individual donations (which meant party favors for all guests, many more (really awesome) giveaways, and a "store" and silent auction with local products)
Nicer floral decorations (tropical flower arrangements for stage and VIP tables, ti leaves, orchids, tuberose, and pineapples for all other tables)
Emcees that incorporated trivia into the program to educate guests about Hawai'i
Fresh orchid leis for VIP guests
Fake flower leis and shell leis for first ~250 guests
Opening band for our headliner band (in addition to the live dinner music)
RTCC Grand Ballroom
Table Decorations
Emcees Abe Markowitz & Hunter Hunt
Doors opened at 5:30 pm, and the evening began with live contemporary Hawaiian music performed by Julie Yamashiro '13, Hunter Hunt '13, Nikki Yep '12, and Zesen Wong '13. Traditional Hawaiian food was catered by Back Home in Lahaina, including kalua pork, Lahaina fried chicken, lomi salmon, chicken long rice, macaroni salad, fruit salad, and haupia. We also had King's Hawaiian sweet bread rolls and three huge sheet cakes of Paradise Cake. So ono (delicious)!
King's Hawaiian Paradise Cake
Students performed nine hula dances and one Tahitian dance, all of which were choreographed by five talented USC Hawai'i Club members - Jasmine Wong '12, Stephanie Sekimura '13, Erin Manago '13, Kaitlin Kogachi '14, and Sara Horiuchi '14.
Choreographers: AIA I OLA’A KU’U ALOHA by Kaumakaiwa Kanaka’ole
Choreographed by: Stephanie Sekimura ‘13
Couples: HALEIWA HULA by Amy Hanaiali’i Gilliom
Choreographed by: Jasmine Wong ‘12
Fast Auana: NO PUEOKAHI by Na Palapalai
Choreographed by: Stephanie Sekimura ‘13
Following the hula performances was TruFlo, an up-and-coming band comprised of college students from Hawai'i, who opened for our headliner band, The Green. The Green is one of Hawai'i's hottest bands right now, and everyone absolutely loved them - they are great live! I also really appreciated that The Green was so easy to work with - very friendly, flexible, and understanding.
TruFlo
The Green
"Love I" by The Green
Overall, we were very pleased with the success and positive feedback for our 32nd annual lu'au. Next year, the USC Hawai'i Club 33rd Annual Lu'au is set to be held on Saturday, March 31, 2012. Don't miss it! =)
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