STAND. COM. REP. NO. 447

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 449

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism, to which was referred S.B. No. 449 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE FESTIVAL OF PACIFIC ARTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism for the Commission on the Thirteenth Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture to plan for the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture to be held in Honolulu from June 6 to June 16, 2024.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Hawai‘i Tourism Authority; State Foundation on Culture and the Arts; Commission on the Thirteenth Festival of Pacific Arts & Culture; Hawai‘i Lodging & Tourism Association; and two individuals. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committees find that the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture is an event that brings together a delegation of over two-thousand artists, performers, and cultural practitioners from twenty-seven different nations in Oceania, in order to preserve and perpetuate the arts and cultures of their indigenous peoples. Additionally, it is an event that has been held approximately every four years since its creation in 1972. In 2016, Hawaii won its bid to host the thirteenth Festival of Pacific Arts. However, the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic canceled the original festival scheduled for 2020. Hawaii is now scheduled to host the Thirteenth Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture from June 6th, 2024, to June 16th, 2024. Therefore, with the world emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and Hawaii getting a second chance to host the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture event, this measure will appropriate funds to the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism for the Commission on the Thirteenth Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture to plan for the Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Correcting the name of the Thirteenth Festival of Pacific Arts to the Thirteenth Festival of Pacific Arts and Culture;

(2) Inserting a blank appropriation amount; and

(3) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 449, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 449, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism,

________________________________ LYNN DECOITE, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair