Island School

Enjoy the sweet strains of the instrument that has come to symbolize Hawaii. At the Annual Ukulele Festival in Hawaii, guest artists and a ukulele orchestra of more than 800 schoolchildren entertain the thousands who attend each year in downtown Waikiki.

Known as the "Pride of the Pacific," the Hawaii Theatre Center began as a classical downtown venue in 1922, where vaudeville, plays, musicals and silent films were the standard of the day. Eventually, the theater fell into disrepair and was abandoned in 1984. But an energetic local group of activists saved the historic venue from the wrecking ball, and the theater reopened its doors in 1996 as a 1400-seat performance center.