Feeling festive... Love this new convenient location for their 2024 festival at the Kaka'ako Mauka Gateway Park...where!? You can't miss it on Ala Moana Blvd it's the grassy area just past Kewalo Basin. Though many of the surrounding areas are metered parking just a bit away at Kaka'ako Waterfront Park is free parking. With the the festival was very well organized and had much more food this year as a couple of years ago I left hungry and sad though wished that this year they have more snacks to purchase with the leftover tickets that I ended up giving to a friend and they didn't have a soju drinking area this year but in general was a very festival celebration of the Korean culture. Thank you! read more

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Went to see the Korean Festival which was the first time going and really enjoyed the many different booth and activities for children and the many food vendors. They also had lots of various stage shows throughout the day and night, which you will find something you will enjoy. Lots of chairs and a large eating area to rest and eat the food you purchased while taking in the many different booths and products being sold from different retailers. We tried the Metro Christian Church booth selling a BBQ meat with Kim chee sandwich which was delicious and tasty and tender it was the best deal at 10 scrips ($1.00 per scrip) they had a combo meal a bottle water, shrimp chips, and sandwich. We also purchased a sho Chu all drinks are $5.00 per cup. It was ok but some of the samples were too sweet. Asato's had a booth selling there ice dessert and it was 5 scripts ($5.00 per cup) for about a 2 or 3 oz cup. Lots of space not overly crowded and convenient with parking and on the main bus line if you like to catch the bus down. They also had a Sho Chu area set up for drinking Sho chu of beers for adults which they do I.D. Before you can enter. read more

I agree with the other reviews...minus stars for 1. Parking hard to find 2. Terrible entertainment (boring) 3. Mediocre food. I had a pork bowl $5 no flavor, gross fat. Mandoo $5 worst tasting ever! I gave it to my friend to eat. $5 bb bowl was just ok...should have just given up and went home at that point. I got there about 5pm left at sunset 715pm actually that was the best part...found a quiet bench away from the crowd and took pictures of the sunset and clouds. read more

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Annyeong haseyo! This is the first year the Korean Festival was held at Magic Island. I think I like it here better. You can park at the mall (ohh don't tell all Moana Center I said that) and walk over. There seemed to be way more food vendors this year. You can eat all your Korean favorites like spicy pork and dukbokki or local Korean favorites like meat jun or kim bap with spam. They even had bacon wrapped hot dogs and egg puffs. There's tons to choose from. There's a cultural tent and products tent to go check out as well. The only downfall is not a lot of shade and it was hot! The highlight of this event is an M.Pire concert tonight which unfortunately I will miss. I was lucky and saw them rehearsing on my afternoon run and it's totally worth seeing tonight. This is a great event to go to have fun and learn about Korean culture. Proud to be Korean! read more

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This was my first time attending the Annual Korean Festival that's normally held at Kapiolani Park. I think Magic Island is more easily accessible and since this might be a one time only change of venue I figure I might as well check it out. I was planning to go in the morning but it was so muggy and hot out I decided against it and went in the evening instead. IT WAS STILL UNCOMFORTABLY HOT! At least I didn't get sun burn but I still roasted! I officially hate Summer! There was some interesting things to see in the culture tent like traditional hanbok clothing and traveling gear one would wear way back when. Also lots of K-Pop posters to look at; most of whom I am unaware though I have been listening to alot of it these days. All purchases are by script. $1 for 1 script. Everything is pricey. But monies raised for this event goes to a scholarship fund so it makes a bitter pill easier to swallow knowing you'll be helping someone advance their education. I would have to say that even though newbie K-Pop group M.Pire was performing that night, the big hit of the event was Snow Factory's Jipangi Ice Cream ($6). This treat originates from Insadong & I had previously seen this on YouTube (eatyourkimchi), so I wanted to try it. There was fifty orders ahead of me which tells you how popular it was. It was a fifty minute wait so they were cranking it out at about a minute per treat. The "cane" part of this ice cream is made out of a corn snack that was lightly sweetened and a bit crunchy & spongy at the same time. It was rather thick so it kind of gave off a stale texture. The ice cream was like an icy soft serve (for reference, I prefer McDonald's.) There wasn't a whole lot of ice cream in my jipangi so there was more corn snack than anything else. A novelty and passing fad? Perhaps, but Snow Factory would be crazy to pass on the opportunity. I would be surprised if they have not started selling it in their store already. Tips if you go next year: Go early in the day if you go for the grinds. Things sell out. So I probably missed out on some things by going in the evening, but at least I didn't burn to a crisp. In life you have to take the rough with the smooth. Choose wisely. read more

Korean Festival - From Snow Factory's booth. ($6) July 2014. - Festivals Near Me - Honolulu, Hawaii

Oh gosh. This festival had to be held on the muggiest day of August. My friends and I were absolutely DYING of the heat. I drank my entire hydro flask in a matter of 30 minutes and we kept having to buy drinks to try to keep cool. Overall, I thought the festival was fun and my friends and I had a great time. Unfortunately we were looking to sample a lot of different kinds of Korean food and there just wasn't a lot of it. Most of the food seemed to just be random island vendors. This is separate from my opinion of the festival but that "J" ice cream was horrible. It was like captain crunch with soft-serve vanilla ice cream inside. I was really hoping it was a Churro lol. Back to the festival though, despite having a great time, I do think it could be better organized and held in a WAY better place like say inside the Blaisdell Convention Hall, at the Honolulu Convention Center, or maybe at kapiolani park. As far as entertainment goes, I agree with other reviewers. The festival seemed boring-ish when there weren't any exhibitions going on onstage. My suggestion for the future would be to hold a k-pop karaoke contest during various times! Now that would get people entertained and would probably even be funny for those people who really like to "outperform" themselves lol. Just need to make sure the DJ or MC has a laptop hooked up to YouTube and have the participants look up a karaoke or instrumental K-Pop song. Otherwise, you could hire someone that has one of those k-pop karaoke systems and also rent a projector and screen. I also think that there should have been a K-pop group or star to attract more people because the festival grounds were kinda dead :(. It was sad to think that all these people were out there working and giving their time to this festival with such a small crowd. I would, however, definitely go again and recommend other people to check it out... especially if they have a karaoke contest in the future :P read more

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It is what it is seems to fit perfectly this fest. One Year- the first year I went, both the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and the Korean Fest organizers worked with the Korean Embassy staff to put on a great evening production at Honolulu Hale in conjunction with more activities. There was Korean food galore that tasted stupendous! Compare that to this year's 2016 version and it is what the organizers were able to pull together. Entertainment that is on par with grade school and high school talent show stuff- acts like "Does anyone have any questions about traditional weddings in Korea?" Was the act on stage this year. In general- people have this thing called google on their cell phones that if they really wanted to know about something like - traditional weddings in Korea- they could ask Siri or their phone. No- No one wants to know about traditional weddings in Korea, only asking a question like that can get you hecklers if there weren't beat cops all around the park. This year- there were booths that had both traditional type food and the blazing steaks kind of food. The bimpbap(sp?) line was crazy long- I would have loved to try it but between getting the line for scripts and that huge line, I was tooooooo hungry and opted for quick over better. The keiki had bouncers- super fun for them. There were K-Pop type items in 1 tent to buy. That would be cool for fans. Far as singers- I didn't recognize any of the band names- no AKMA or AOA or Twice or Psy or Rain as headliners. Geico had a cool booth- I won a hat. Other than that, you have to be really into it to have fun. read more

I've been going to the Korean Festival for the last three years. I have to say that this was the most disappointing event of the three years in terms of entertainment. The only events I had interest in were the kimchi and jjangmyun eating contests. But I couldn't even enjoy that because the table was set on the ground, meaning you couldn't get a view of the contestants unless you swarmed the table. There were also no kpop acts to look forward to. I enjoyed the M.pire performance last year and it was very disappointing to have no concert to look forward to. Due to this, I actually left the Korean Festival in the late afternoon instead of staying from opening to closing as I had in years past. That means I spent a lot less money than I usually do. I hope they bring back the kpop next year, even if it's another small rookie group! Also, I really disliked that a major sponsor had to give all their big prizes to the main stage. I felt like the sponsor got a lot less attention than usual this year because the prizes they had at their booth were lackluster. I liked the old system before because unlike the main stage, they would actually tell us when to return with our numbers so we knew not to stand in line for food during that time. They also didn't have to deal with calling as many numbers that were never claimed. It actually was upsetting to see that the main stage gave up after a few numbers and just handed out a grand prize to the first person who ran up to the stage. What about the people that actually spent money at your event? Quite unfair to them if some random person who just wandered in off the beach gets such a nice prize when they didn't buy anything. The saving grace this year was the food and that's the only reason my review has 2 stars when it deserves 1 star. There was a huge selection of foods and I felt it was their best selection out of the three years I've attended. There were so many choices at reasonable prices, far more reasonable than I remember in years past. I had Pork Fries for lunch which was like a french fry salad with pulled pork. Delicious! I also had Snow Factory's mango snow and Haunani Shaved Ice's strawberries and cream shaved ice. Both hit the spot after a long day in the hot, humid weather. The winner of the two was Haunani Shaved Ice. The fresh strawberries and layers of syrup/condensed milk in the ice made it a treat worth splurging on! Let's pray for better weather and organization of the event next year! I was a huge fan of the Korean Festival before but if it's the same next year, I'll just come to check out the food then leave right away. read more

After thinking things thoroughly through, I decided to give my input, not to bash the festival, but to give potential ideas to make this festival better than before! The first thing that was disappointing was their lack of entertainment on the main stage. Even if it wasn't a kpop group or artist up there, I feel at the very least, we could have seen other unique acts rather than the same performers multiple times. Don't get me wrong, the performers there were great! I just know the festival has the potential to showcase some great talent! Even a singing contest like last year would have been fun! Second, I was extreeemely disappointed to see the MCs giving away a raffle prize, a bit one at that, to a kid just because he came up to the stage. This sort of comes across as the staff not caring if we, the PAYING customers at the festival, reap the benefits of paying for our scrips and potentially winning. This was extremely unfair in my opinion. To add to this is the short amount of time the unannounced raffles were being given away in general! There have been times I was in line for food and couldn't hear the mic or I could hear the mic and had no chance to leave /if/ I had won. Again, another case of a paying customer there supporting the festival, but losing out for no reason. Anyway, apart from the bad, there was some good. The food contests provided among the best entertainment, as it was both humorous and suspenseful. The food selection was by far the best I've seen. The staff at the Von's tent was very patient and polite, and the wings were delicious. Of course, hot and spicy during a hot and humid festival isn't exactly the best combination. If the food was any indication of the direction the festival is heading in future years, I'd be super thrilled. However, if the entertainment is the indicator, it will be severely disappointing. read more

The food I tried was very good and tasty. It was hot during the day. The cultural tent and exhibits were informative. However waiting for the drawing seems long. Too bad they didn't draw in between the acts. I waited from 4 to 8:30 pm and only the trip to Korea was drawn...I asked the people who were handing out the raffle tickets when do they do the raffle and received different answers from every half hour to every hour both never occurred while I was listening and watching the lengthy- too lengthy at times program. What happened to the other prizes we were waiting for? Given away or non-existent? Who knows. So many people left before the only drawing for the trip. They were worn out by the look on their faces. Throw in a drawing between the 12 singing contestants. They were on over an hour. The dancing that came after showing the different periods of Kpop dragged liked probably this review. Good thing it didn't rain. Since there wasn't any lights in the tent on the main stage it was hard too see some of the faces of the performers. They were very energetic and were having fun. read more

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2015 - 4 stars, but rounded up. I would rather rate it 3.5... It was a magic island this year, you'd think there's be more parking than Kapiolani park, but it was worse. I drove around for 20 minutes looking for parking, then gave up and decided to park at Ala Moana. Even Ala Moana was crowded. One of my friends had to turn back because she couldn't find parking. I had $5 jap chae, which was pretty good. I also had $5 coconut lemonade slushie. There were a lot of different food vendors, but you have to pay with scripts (1 script = $1). I find paying with scripts very inconvenient because you can't turn in the scripts that you don't use. The kimchi eating contest was pretty funny, but it was very hot standing in the sun. You could hardly see the contestants either. It would have been nice for them to be on the stage. I might go again another year, but hope for better weather. It was almost unbearable. We only stayed a little while.. read more

This festival was really well done with good vendors and the lines weren't too ridiculously long like other Oahu festivals. I had great food and drinks from many vendors (the watermelon drink is a must). Unfortunately this event was on one of the hottest and most humid days I've ever experienced so it was kind of miserable. I would have stayed longer to see all the awesome presentations but I couldn't bear the heat and I was totally melting from sweating! I wish this festival was at a different time of year so it could actually be enjoyed. Either way, I'm 1/4 Korean so it's great to see Korean culture represented and celebrated. The only negative things were the need to buy "scrips"to purchase anything, no area for seating/eating, and even tho the magic island location is great it means there's no parking so come early or be prepared to park at the mall across the street and walk all the way over. My tips are to bring your own folding chair or blanket because there's no seating, bring cash, come early. Also there's a variety of good food if you're not into Korean food so don't let that deter you from coming. Blazin steaks is one example. My favorite was the roasted corn! Yum! read more

Live music was pretty good. Friendly atmosphere. Real cops on duty. Oh and the food...check around, they have some really good local flavor. read more

MUST GO EARLY, not just for parking (Ala Moana SC, shhh!), but for the food. Went around 6-6:15 pm, and (NO NO NO!) the KFC (Korean Fried Chicken), as well as other goodies, were gone, gone, gone. Friends from the U.S. continent went to a porky burger/sliders booth, with all kinds of bistro-type pig-based cuisine for around $10-11 a pop. But I got my dokbokki ($5 with only mochi and fishcake, hella spicy, but best deal at the festival), and their teen daughter got her corn-ice cream candy-cone-shaped thingie for $8. Most meals are $8ish, and you need to buy scrips at $1/per, to purchase. [Even the desserts, such as Korean shaved ice, started at this price.] At that late hour, super crowded, long-lined booth was the bi bim bap, which went by something BOWL (mainland-i-fied nomenclature). It had 25-plus people, whereas other booths had already closed down or sported only 3-4 customers mulling around their counters. The teen daughter enjoyed the many trendy urban hip-hoppy dancers on stage (teens/tweens from Korean community), but she, a high-school cheerleader and private-school nerd visiting from Kansas, Missouri, thought the routines were too sexual for kids her age. Community members and Korean family in the audience didn't seem to mind, though. I thought the dances were age-appropriate. Guess it's a regional and/or cultural thing. Usually it's super-hot by the time this event rolls around, and the grounds of the park are somewhat crowded, so dress light, and bring a spritzer. read more

The festival itself was a 5 star. The heat 0 stars. Mother Nature was to blame for the heat. It reminded me of the summer days in Norcal. I noticed more vendors then last year which is good because you got more choices. I saw some old Korean items on display which were pretty intesting to me. The food prices were OK too. read more

This event was okay. Mainly just food (wish there was more authentic Korean food). There was a tent with some Korean artifacts and clothing that was pretty cool. The tent also had posters of famous Korean people, which had some girls (me included) falling all over the posters of their favorite K-star. The booths were okay, nothing really fun. There was a tent where you could purchase socks, keychains, clips, face mask and other stuff. Also you could check your posture. The performances were good, I just wish I got more of a Korean vibe at this Korean Festival. read more

This year's (2015) Korean Festival was held at Ala Moana Beach Park. Usually they have it at Kapiolani Park but this time it was specifically at the Magic Island site. The overall layout and structure of everything was just like how I remembered back when they had it at Kapiolani Park. The parking will always be an issue since it is Ala Moana Beach and everything. It is actually in the front side of Magic Island so it is not too far of a walk from the parking area. They have a lot of food vendors everything from Korean food delicacies and other types of food too which is good because it makes it diverse and what not. They have some great Korean entertainment everything from Korean cultural groups, karaoke singing contests, eating contests, K-Pop stars, and many more. They have a great cultural exhibit tent which showcases everything from cultural items like clothing and attire to Korean pop culture with their entertainment groups. They also have a handful of local vendors that are great to see from small local businesses selling snacks, clothing, accessories, Yelp booth, and many more. Overall it is a great family and community event that celebrates and recognizes the Korean culture locally and abroad. read more