Rohnert Park transformed to getaway for Pacific Islander Festival

Rohnert Park was transformed into a Polynesian melting pot Saturday, part of a growing annual festival to celebrate island culture and raise money for youth programs.

Hula dancers, bare-chested warriors, ukuleles and shave ice prevailed at the sixth annual Pacific Islander Festival, casting an aloha spirit and South Seas vibe in the Friendly City.

The event at Rohnert Park City Center Plaza draws people and influences from Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Tahiti, New Zealand and the Philippines.

“It’s unity of all cultures, a coming together. Celebrating life is what it’s about,” said Carlos Perez, who is part Hawaiian and attends the festival regularly.

Perez, a call center manager and member of the Lokahi outrigger paddling club in Petaluma, said the family event provides a sense of home.

“I feel I’m a million miles away from the hustle and bustle and dealing with life’s worries,” he said of the festival. “It transports you.”

The afternoon breeze might as well have been a tropical trade wind blowing across the small downtown square in front of the police station and parking lot occupied by the festival.

“It’s a great cultural event. We bring the islands to Sonoma County,” said Raquel Kilmartin, fundraising director for the event. She estimated attendance at the free-admission festival would surpass the 2,000 to 2,500 of previous years.

The Pacific Islander Festival is a fundraiser for the Rohnert Park Warriors, a youth football and cheer organization for children ages 5 to 15.

“All the money is to keep costs down, so all kids can participate,” Kilmartin said.

Besides traditional foods and desserts, jewelry, clothing and musical instruments were for sale. Kids had their pick of games, including bounce houses, a giant slide and a climbing wall.

But it was the dancers who were the central attraction, including the Well Springs youth group, affiliated with a Santa Rosa-based Congregational church with a large Samoan membership.

Serenity Sunia, 16, did “the money dance” resplendent as a Samoan princess surrounded by a retinue of maidens and warriors. Audience members approached by the score to throw dollar bills at her feet.

Vaoileti Poueu Peleti, the leader of the Santa Rosa-based Taimalietane dance group, said movements in Hawaiian hula tell stories of the trees and the land. In Tahitian dances, she said the hips tell a story to the drumbeat.

Andrea Alvarado, a Sonoma massage therapist attending the festival for the first time with her 12-year-old daughter, was impressed by the focus and energy of the dance troupes.

“It keeps kids culturally influenced and knowledgeable,” she said of the whole event.

And it also whetted her appetite for a trip to Hawaii that she is planning when her son, 15, graduates from high school. It will be her first trip to the islands.

“We’re getting a taste and feel for what it has to offer,” she said.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 707-521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter@clarkmas.