Thousands expected to visit 30th Made In Hawaii Festival

HONOLULU (KHON2) – With the Made In Hawaii Festival returning back this year, kicks off today and is going to be filling up the Hawaii Convention Center throughout this weekend meaning there is going to be thousands of customers coming down to purchase locally made from local vendors and there are hundreds of them this year.

That means potentially long lines which people are willing to wait in to purchase some products that you can only find at Made In Hawaii Festival.

This line is of Simply Sisters and Lex Breezy and I am here with customer Kelsienna Kaseli.

The question is how long have you been standing in line?

“About an hour and a half and I probably have about a half an hour more,” says Kaseli.

Really, that is how slow this line has been moving?

So about 3-4 people worth is about half an hour?

“Yes, I would say so, maybe 20 minutes.”

So, what is the reasoning for standing in line for an hour and a half?

Are they that good in terms of product?

“Oh yes, absolutely,” says Kaseli.

“Its great quality and they have a lot of new prints that they dropped just for Made In Hawaii so you couldn’t get your hands on it anywhere else.”

Do you come here every year to Made In Hawaii?

“Yes, every year since I was a small kid myself, we have been coming here every year with my family,” says Kaseli.

So, you know when you look around, there are some, maybe we can say there are other companies that can make the same product cheaper.

With these products being handmade, being locally made by the artists themselves, is it worth paying the little extra money?

“Absolutely, I think it is definitely worth it. I think we should continue to support local. They put a lot of effort to make these things and it’s not going to be the same quality if you buy it elsewhere,” says Kaseli.

It better not just be one piece of clothing you are going to be buying?

“Oh no, definitely not. I am going to make sure I take my time in there.”

Again, this is just one vendor.

Another brand that I heard was really long in term of the line is Fighting Eel.

So, if any of these brands are familiar to you and you are really wanting to get something, you may want to come a littler earlier.

If you can’t come today, of course you have tomorrow from 9am-8pm and you have Sunday from 9am-5pm.

Sunday is the last day which may be the less crowded, but you also may not have as much products available.

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So, to find out all the information for the 30th Made In Hawaii Festival here at the Hawaii Convention Center, click here.