• Merrie Monarch is an annual festival in Hilo, Hawaii.
• It celebrates Hawaiian traditions with craft fairs, parades, and hula competitions.
• This article is part of “Community in Focus,” a series highlighting Asian and Pacific Islander events.

As the sun set over the misty town of Hilo, Hawaii, on April 6, about 4,000 people stood up from their seats in the Edith Kanakaʻole stadium and joined hands.

They swayed in unison, their voices reverberating off the bleachers and walls to the tune of “Hawaii Aloha,” a song locals often sing to mark the end of a cultural celebration. This time, they were saying goodbye to Merrie Monarch, an annual weeklong festival for honoring native Hawaiian traditions such as hula and craft making.

When I was growing up in Hilo, attending Merrie Monarch was the highlight of my year. My grandmother would take me to hotels around Hilo, where my uncles would perform Hawaiian music and children would dance the hula, big smiles plastered on their faces. The hotels buzzed with excitement as artisans showcased their crafts, and the scent of traditional Hawaiian delicacies filled the air. At the Merrie Monarch Royal Parade, I was enchanted as horseback riders floated by wearing colorful leis and long pāʻū skirts.

The festival, which started on March 31 this year, is marked by a mass migration of Hawaiians to Hilo on the state’s Big Island, also called Hawaii.

These Hawaiians — largely hula dancers who have dedicated their lives to mastering the ancestral dance — overtake the small town of Hilo, bringing with them custom-made hula garments, intricate handmade goods, delectable eats, and goosebump-inducing song and dance.

“It truly is the finest time in Hawaii,” Dillon Ancheta, a Hawaiian-born journalist who has covered Merrie Monarch celebrations for the past five years, told Business Insider. “It feels like the entire state gets excited for Merrie Monarch, and the absolute best of our culture is on display.”

Take a look inside this year’s Merrie Monarch Festival.

A warning has been issued for a “Kona Low” which has hit Hawaii and several of its islands which are set for a “multi-day heavy rain event.”

The seasonal cyclone developed over the state on Tuesday night, leading to flood advisories being posted for Kauai, Oahu and Maui in particular.

“Excessive rainfall and flash flooding is a concern” in these places, the National Weather Service (NWS) said in its most recent area forecast discussion.

Forecasters went on to describe the “multi-day rain event” as “like a fire hose shooting water.”

A “Kona Low” is a tropical storm that turns the wind around in the opposite direction, bringing moisture-heavy air.

Its showers are expected to increase throughout Wednesday, especially over the western half of the state, with heavy bands of rain developing with embedded thunderstorms. These will start over Oahu and move eastward towards Maui County by the evening.

The NWS said: “Wednesday night into Thursday looks to the time period for the potential for flash flooding is the highest.

“Due to the widespread rain event, large rises should be expected over streams.

“A Flood Watch is in effect for the entire state starting Wednesday, but for the Wednesday and Thursday time frame, the greatest chance for flooding impacts will be over Oahu and Maui County with Big Island seeing the least chance for flooding impacts.”

Thursday and Thursday night could see a slight decrease in rain rates, but “a steady stream of moisture with prolonged periods of moderate to locally heavy rain will persist around Oahu and Maui County throughout the day.”

By Friday, the “Kona Low” will have begun shifting westward and drier winds will develop over the eastern part of the state—this will decrease the flooding dangers but showers are still possible.

Places like Kauai, in the west, will likely see “persistent showery weather” by this point, although not as widespread as the east will have seen over the next two days.

Even more water is set to be pulled towards Kauai and Oahu, “possibly even in excess of two inches,” the NWS said. This means “significant flooding impacts over Kauai this weekend.”

People have been warned that there may be property damage in urban or low-lying spots due to runoff, with the possibility of landslides in steep areas.

Honolulu’s Flood Watch says: “You should monitor later forecasts and be prepared to take action should Flash Flood Warnings be issued.

“Remember that it does not have to be raining at your location for flash flooding to occur. If you notice signs of heavy rain or thunderstorms upslope, move quickly away from flood-prone areas.”

Hawaii has changed its tune on butterfly knives and other bladed weapons.

Governor Josh Green (D.) signed Act 021 into law on Monday. The measure amends several of the state’s weapons regulations, including a repeal of its longstanding bans on the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, and transportation of butterfly knives, switchblades, and other non-firearm weapons. It will also allow the open-carry of those weapons–though concealed carry remains illegal.

The law took immediate effect upon the Governor’s signature.

The legislation marks a significant policy reversal for leaders in the Aloha State. Before Monday, Hawaii’s attorneys vigorously defended the state’s decades-old ban on possessing butterfly knives against a Second Amendment lawsuit by arguing that they are uniquely dangerous and associated with criminality. A three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the ban as unconstitutional last August in Teter v. Lopez. However, the state appealed that decision, and the Ninth Circuit has agreed to review the case en banc.

Governor Green did not respond to a request for comment on his decision to sign the bill or its intended impact on the state’s ongoing lawsuit. Instead, his office directed The Reload to a written statement from the Hawaii Attorney General’s office claiming the new law “updates, clarifies, and modernizes a number of aspects of Hawaii’s weapons laws.”

“These are important regulations that protect public safety,” a spokesperson from the office said.

Attorney Alan Beck, who is helping to litigate the Teter case, called Act 21 a win because the old ban conflicted with the Supreme Court’s reading of the Second Amendment in 2022’s New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen.

“There is no reason to criminalize the ownership of a knife just because it has a second handle or a spring,” he told The Reload. “And it is contrary to Bruen to ban the carry of melee weapons which have been in common use since the Colonial Era.”

Hawaii officials, however, quickly moved to head off any future wins by Beck in the case. Just one day after Governor Green signed the measure, attorneys for the state filed a motion to have the Teter case dismissed as moot in the Ninth Circuit.

“In this litigation, Plaintiffs sought prospective declaratory and injunctive relief against the enforcement of Hawai’i’s butterfly-knife regulations to the extent that state law prevented them from “possess[ing] butterfly knives in their homes or . . . openly carry[ing] them in public,” the Tuesday filing reads. “Act 21 allows Plaintiffs to do precisely that. Because Act 21 is a legislative repeal of the challenged provisions, it ‘creates a presumption that the action is moot.’”

Other gun-rights advocates suggested the quick timing of the state’s law change and legal maneuvering could be the result of concerns with more than just knife policy. Kostas Moros, a gun rights attorney who handles cases in the Ninth Circuit, said in a social media post that the legalization effort was “very obviously” an effort to avoid a federal precedent that could threaten more consequential hardware bans related to things like “assault weapons” or magazines.

“They didn’t want to risk a conservative en banc panel draw that could reverse the eventual antigun ruling in Duncan, nor did they want to risk SCOTUS review in a case SCOTUS would find enticing (because butterfly knives are a low stakes way to make precedent),” he said.

Duncan is a case involving California’s ban on magazines capable of holding more than ten rounds. A federal judge struck down the ban as unconstitutional last September, and a three-judge panel for the Ninth Circuit is currently deciding whether to overturn that decision on appeal.

Before the full Ninth Circuit decided to vacate and rehear the case, the panel decision in Teter was the first and only federal appeals court ruling to strike down a hardware ban since the Supreme Court handed down its Bruen decision. On the other hand, multiple federal circuit courts have issued opinions upholding bans on ammunition magazines and semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15. 

Beck acknowledged the state’s attempt to undermine the butterfly ban case. Still, he won’t drop the suit because, despite the change in law, concealed carrying the disputed knives is not allowed, and open carrying is not a realistic option.

“We will still continue our litigation because our clients are unable to concealed carry butterfly knives, and butterfly knives are designed to be carried in the pocket as they do not have a clip,” he said.