Honolulou Marathon on Sunday – Shimabukuro, Polynesians Wow Marathoners at Concert

About 3,500 people braved blustery weather at the Waikiki Shell Friday night for the annual Honolulu Marathon Luau and Concert.

A brief rain fell shortly after the concert began, bringing out umbrellas and the free ponchos that were handed out at the gate. But most of the marathoners remained throughout the four-hour program despite the cool winds and continuing threat of rain. Included were many who sat in the wet grassy area behind the seats. About 5,000 tickets had been sold for the event.

Vocalist Teresa Bright, who opened the show, dedicated her last song to \“all of you who have come to enjoy our island weather,\’\‘ drawing laughs from the audience. Her songs included jazz, Hawaiian, and Japanese numbers, including a Japanese song with words translated into the Hawaiian language.

More than 16,000 of the 26,500 who had registered for the race as of Friday morning are from Japan, and many of those in the audience were Japanese.

Following Bright and the singing duo Cecilio and Kapono were the musicians and dancers from the Polynesian Cultural Center in Windward Oahu. They performed songs and dances of Tahiti, the Maori of New Zealand, Hawaii, Tonga and Samoa. The Samoan segment concluded with a performance by the center\’s three-time world fire-knife dance champion, who was a big crowd pleaser.

Hawaii ukulele artist Jake Shimabukuro, who concluded the show, also wowed the crowd. Shimabukuro has performed at the marathon concert and at the race-day awards ceremony for the past several years, and also performs frequently in Japan. He ran the marathon for the first time last year. \“It was one of most incredible experiences of my life,\’\‘ he said. He wished the marathoners well, particularly the first-timers.

Before Shimabukuro took the stage, Japanese television and movie actor Katsunori Takahashi made a surprise appearance. As he extended brief greetings to the audience in both Japanese and English, dozens of his Japanese fans moved in closer to take pictures. Takahashi is in Honolulu as a reporter for a television documentary on the marathon.