When the official Merrie Monarch Hawaiian Arts & Crafts Fair returns to Hilo on Wednesday, April 8, one of the booths will belong to a family business that has spent years building its reputation around Hawaiian koa wood. Koa Kards owner Alliya Gabriel said the company has been serving the Big Island community for three decades and rebranded about five years ago while she was living in Hilo.
The 2026 fair runs through Saturday, April 11, at Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium and the adjacent Butler Buildings as part of the 63rd annual Merrie Monarch Festival. Admission is free. More than 150 vendors will be on site, and Koa Kards will be among them, selling postcards, bookmarks, magnets, earrings and stickers made with 100% Hawaiian koa wood.
Gabriel said Merrie Monarch is the company’s busiest stretch of the year, even busier than Christmas. “It’s probably the most thrilling — and exhausting — experience to go through for 4 days,” she said. Koa Kards plans all year for the fair, Gabriel said, and uses the event to debut most of its new releases and secure most of its wholesale accounts.
The fair is not just a marketplace. Taylor Escalona and Kegan Miura, who co-chair the event, said it is the official Hawaiian arts and crafts fair of the Merrie Monarch Festival and sits at the center of what the week is meant to show. It will feature Hawai‘i-made products, local food vendors, daily performances by local hālau and hands-on cultural demonstrations, including pa‘u drum making and kapa crafting.
That mix is part of why vendors return year after year. Escalona and Miura said master craftspeople, emerging artists, families passing down traditions and visitors from around the world all take part, while Gabriel said the draw is the people who show up for Hawaiian-owned businesses and the hālau competing through the week. “Engaging with community and building relationships is really what we are there for,” she said. For Koa Kards, the fair remains the place where business, tradition and audience all meet at once.
The fair opens from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, giving Hilo four days of festival traffic and a reminder that Merrie Monarch’s craft fair is as much about keeping culture visible as it is about selling it.
