Waimea Festival 2004
Sunday, August 29, 2004 in Waimea, Hawaii Island
Community story on the Inaugural Waimea Festival, in the August 5, 2004 Hawaii Tribune-Herald
IfA Outreach officer Gary Fujihara interacting with festival-goers Nancy Tashima of the Onizuka Space Center was a big hit with the youngsters Keck Observatory had an exhibit and provided StarLab planetarium shows Richard Crowe represented UHH Astronomy program and NOMISS
Remi Cabanac setting up the displays for CFHT's exhibit UHH student Ben Berkey and VIS staff Rich Berner looking for Venus
CFHT provided views of the sun VIS volunteers Ann Michaels and Linda Tran at the mirror grinding exhibit
The inaugural Waimea Festival brought out several thousand people to Parker Ranch Center in Waimea, with attractions consisting of Hawaiian arts and crafts, good food, live music and exhibits of all kinds. Of course, astronomy was well represented by the UH Institute for Astronomy, Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope, Keck Observatory, Mauna Kea Astronomy Education Center (MKAEC), UH Hilo Astronomy and Physics, Onizuka Space Center and the Visitor Information Station. Interaction with the public was very upbeat and positive, with many inquiries of the new MKAEC facility in Hilo, the many ongoing NASA missions including the Genesis sample return on September 8, and Deep Impact next July 3rd, and King David Kalakaua's interest and support of astronomy in Hawaii. The only lament from Gary was the constant stream of visitors with ono-licious food and seemingly boundless curiosity - its tough to field questions when your mouth is salivating!
Good help is hard to find - Kaipo taking an outreach break behind the IfA exhibit
Caroline Maxwell, Archie and Marlene Hapai at the MKAEC booth