Post #388309 by ikitnrev on Thu, Jun 19, 2008 11:38 PM

I'm 47, and I was at Hukilau, and I felt that the average attendee was likely in the 35 to 55 range, more or less.

On late (1:30 am?) Friday evening that weekend, I stopped by the Kreepy Tiki event, and I felt the average age range there was younger, in the 25 to 40 range. This was partly due to the late hour, but it was still a nice vibe, although different from the feel of the Hukilau event.

At Hukilau, I felt I could turn to almost anyone, start a conversation, and we would likely share the same pop-cultural references. I didn't have that feeling at Kreepy Tiki - that generation has their own bounding cultural references.

The older Hukilau crowd has the ability to apply more resources to their tiki habit - probably a higher income to afford trips to tiki events and to buy artwork for their walls and home, or to indulge in the higher priced liquors or harder to find drink ingredients. Having lived through more things, we might be a bit more certain about what we like, and what we wish to pursue during our free time.

The younger crowd certainly had curiousity and the desire to experience more of the variety that is out there. I got the feeling they were into tiki, liked it, but maybe weren't quite ready to make it a more central part of their life. (They probably hangout at a site called Tiki Periphery) They seemed to be just happy to stand there in their loose groups, observing, and soaking it in a bit .... and perhaps the wheels in their minds were turning, and scheming of new possibilities.

I remember a quote that Pete Townshend of the Who said, about his reputation of being an elder spokesperson of rock. He said something like 'my role isn't to stand here and direct these people on what to do or how to do it .... my role is to get the hell out of the way and give these younger kids the room and space to develop new things on their own." And that is somewhat what I did that evening, just stood back and did some observing myself.

I have made it to every Hukilau event - the first ones you attend are really amazing new experiences, and then after awhile they are still amazing, but they are becoming a bit more familiar, and after a few more, you can almost predict how the events will go .... and you attend anyway, because you know you fit in well with that crowd.

This year, I felt a real freshness at the Kreepy Tiki event. It really wasn't a familiar feeling, but it had the sense of something fresh and new coming over the horizon, and it was really enjoyable. I almost felt that if too many people my age had arrived at the event, it might have spoiled the vibe and magic that I felt.

So my gut feeling is that the younger generation might be discovering tiki, and some of them might seek out the wisdom of the elders on our site. But the collective scene will hopefully continue to germinate and evolve (some of us might say de-evolve) on their own, and that process will probably happen outside our immediate view, and we who are older will not quite understand it when we see it, but that is OK. And there we will all be, our respective generations, all enjoying tiki in our own ways.