The Sacramento Aloha Festival returns September 19, celebrating Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander culture while carrying forward a mission that began more than a decade ago
Fifteen years ago, a piece of Polynesia found a gathering place in Northern California.
What began with Auntie Mona Foster and Hui สปO Hawaii of Sacramento has grown into the Sacramento Aloha Festival, an annual celebration where Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander traditions are not simply presented to an audience. They are practiced, shared, taught, and carried forward.
On Saturday, September 19, 2026, that tradition continues as the Sacramento Aloha Festival returns for its 15th annual celebration, bringing music, dance, food, arts, and community together at the Gold Country Fairgrounds and Event Center in Auburn.
Behind the performances and festivities is a story that reaches back more than fifteen years and a mission designed to reach generations into the future.
WHERE THE STORY BEGAN
The Sacramento Aloha Festival was founded in 2010 by Auntie Mona Foster and Hui สปO Hawaii of Sacramento, Inc. The first festival opened at Cal Expo in Sacramento on October 22, 2011. What began as a community celebration soon developed into something larger. In 2013, the Kaสปลnohi Foundation was established to continue the festivalโs legacy and support its future. Its mission is centered on embodying and perpetuating the cultures of Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders for present and future generations. That distinction matters. Culture survives not simply because its history is recorded, but because people continue to practice it. Music must still be heard. Dance must still be performed. Food must still be prepared and shared. Traditions must move from one generation to the next. The Sacramento Aloha Festival creates a public space where those connections can happen.
MORE THAN A FESTIVAL
Over the years, the Sacramento Aloha Festival has used cultural arts, history, dance, music, and food to introduce visitors to the richness and diversity of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander traditions. For people already connected to those cultures, the festival offers an opportunity to celebrate their heritage together. For others, it can be an introduction to traditions, stories, and experiences rooted thousands of miles across the Pacific. That combination has helped make the event a meeting point between cultures and generations. Families may come for the music, food, or performances and leave having encountered traditions and art forms they may rarely experience elsewhere in Northern California. The organizers describe the Sacramento Aloha Festival as โthe hub that connects Polynesia to the continent.โ The phrase captures an important part of the festivalโs purpose. This is not about recreating an island experience in California. It is about providing a place where traditions with roots across the Pacific can remain visible, practiced, and shared within Californiaโs diverse communities.
CULTURE THROUGH EXPERIENCE
That mission shapes the way the festival is organized. Visitors do not encounter culture only from a stage. Entertainment is combined with cultural workshops, community resources, food, shopping, and family activities, creating multiple ways to participate throughout the day. Children have their own place within that experience. The festivalโs Keiki Korner offers crafts, costumes, games, and activities designed specifically for younger visitors. On the surface, it is a place for children to have fun. On another level, it reflects one of the festivalโs most important ideas: cultural preservation depends on the next generation having opportunities to experience traditions personally. A culture cannot be preserved only by looking backward. Young people must also have opportunities to understand it, participate in it, and eventually carry it forward.
FIFTEEN YEARS LATER
The 2026 Sacramento Aloha Festival marks its 15th annual celebration.
This yearโs festival takes place Saturday, September 19, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Gold Country Fairgrounds and Event Center, 209 Fairgate Road in Auburn, California.
General admission is $5, while children age 10 and under are admitted free.
Throughout the day, visitors can experience Hawaiian and Polynesian music and dance, cultural activities, workshops, food, vendors, community organizations, shopping, and activities for children. For visitors, it is a day to experience the sights, sounds, flavors, and traditions of the Pacific Islands. For the organization behind it, however, the festival is also part of a much longer journey.
A PERMANENT HOME FOR CULTURE
The vision behind the Sacramento Aloha Festival does not end when the gates close. The Kaสปลnohi Foundation has identified a larger goal for the future: raising sufficient funds to establish a Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Cultural Center in the Sacramento region. Such a center would take the underlying idea of the festival beyond an annual gathering by creating a more permanent place for cultural education, connection, preservation, and community. It also brings the story back to what Auntie Mona Foster and Hui สปO Hawaii of Sacramento began more than fifteen years ago. The Sacramento Aloha Festival demonstrates that cultural preservation does not have to happen quietly or behind closed doors. It can happen when a child learns a traditional craft, when a family watches a cultural performance together, when musicians share songs, when dancers carry stories through movement, and when people from different backgrounds gather with curiosity and respect.
For one September day in Northern California, thousands of miles from the islands of the Pacific, those connections become tangible.
Fifteen years after its beginning, the Sacramento Aloha Festival continues to provide a place for them to happen, carrying culture from one generation to the next and keeping a bridge across the Pacific very much alive.
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FESTIVAL INFORMATION
15th Annual Sacramento Aloha Festival
Saturday, September 19, 2026
10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Gold Country Fairgrounds and Event Center
209 Fairgate Road
Auburn, CA 95603
General Admission: $5
Children 10 and under: Free
Website: www.sacalohafest.org
Email: info@sacalohafest.org
