Post #634343 by Hurricane Hayward on Sun, Apr 29, 2012 8:44 PM

OK, kids, let's not get carried away here. It won't do anybody any good to snipe at each other in public.

Within Tiki or any other scene, there are lots of hard-working folks who sweat and toil to bring events to the public with little or no financial reward. I would put The Hukilau in this group. Christie and those who assist her deserve some amount of respect, especially on this forum.

Sure, feel free to disagree with the way things are run. Complain all you want. Just post comments to that effect in the proper forum. A thread that at this point is nothing more than guests talking about how great a time they had, and posting their photos, certainly is not the place to do that.

I'm not really sure how my comment that "we especially need more South Florida folks involved" got misinterpreted into "calling out the locals for their lack of attendance." I said nothing about lack of attendance and really have no idea how many locals attended vs. out-of-towners.

"You haven't been to that many Hukilau's, have you?" Well, five years isn't too shabby. In that time I've seen the event go through many ups and downs, including the near-closing of The Mai-Kai. I know for a fact it's been a gut-wrenching past five years for Tiki Kiliki, yet she manages to keep the event relevant, exciting and interesting. The three symposiums this year (featuring Jeff Berry, Sven Kirsten and Tim Glazner) were among the best I've seen.

So, please let's not jump to conclusions or get too emotional about this. I would never call out the locals for lack of participation. Everyone has their reasons for attending or not attending. My point is simply that we need more people, more fresh faces, more new ideas, more positive and enthusiastic participants in South Florida. That's just a necessity for any event to thrive and survive.

In the Poly Pop scene, South Florida is a mere shadow of California or even New York. And it doesn't really need to be that way. We have The Mai-Kai. We have great beaches, tons of vintage hotels, architecture, and tourist attractions that have no equal. I've always felt that we need to embrace all aspects of what the Sunshine State has to offer and be much more inclusive in welcoming newbies into the fold. As far as I'm concerned, we'll never have enough people involved. We should always be reaching out to attract more participation. As a promoter, that's what I do.

When I run into people who just discovered The Mai-Kai, or just discovered The Hukilau, it makes all the thankless work seem worthwhile. I just hope negative comments and behavior don't drive them away.

Please folks, let's try to take the high road and keep things moving in a positive direction, for everyone's sake.