Tiki Kon 2012: Ten Year Tour

Haere Mai, Hui Hoa!
Tahitian for “Welcome (back), friends!”

I can hardly believe the 10th annual Tiki Kon is nearly upon us!  We’ve had a great deal of fun here in Portland over the past nine Tiki Kons listening to the evocative and spirited tunes of fabulous bands, savoring the home tiki bars of gracious and hospitable hosts, and enjoying the company of all who make this and every year an event to share in the love and goodwill of our PNW Polynesian-pop community.

It has been glorious. When Heather and I moved to PDX from San Francisco we were struck agog with the help and love of the locals. We were fortunate to have been invited as a home bar for the 2nd annual of what was then called the “NorthWest Tiki Crawl and Home Bar Tour” (the moniker ‘Tiki Kon’ began on the 4th year). Mark Axton, Noel Henneman, Mark Pedersen, John Forsythe, Kim Armstrong and others donated a weekend of their time for a tiki bar raising that turned our small front bedroom into “The Monkey Hut” at the eleventh hour. I knew we had to return the love, so Heather and I joined in with helping and have been supporting Tiki Kon ever since. I’m so very proud of all the people over the years who have worked tirelessly and selflessly for this concept. I thank them and you profusely. Maururu Mai!

Tiki Kon 2012 sets sail on its Ten Year Tour! This is the year we invite everyone back to join the fun with a freshly re-energized event – Haere Mai! We have a gorgeous new home and event HQ at The Red Lion Hotel on the River. It sits on the banks of the mighty Columbia with a front row view of majestic (and active) volcano, Mt. Hood.

Our first surprise: we’ve grown the longest-running Home Bar Tour to twice the amount of guests as previous years. This is the year we all want to see everyone back together to celebrate these past fantastic ten years of Pacific NorthWest ‘Ohana!

Stay tuned for many more new surprises in store for you (hint for the next surprise: start getting ‘Hapi’ for this year’s mug) and for upcoming details on bands, seminars, and this here Tiki Kon blog in the coming months! I look forward to sharing with you all the fun in store for us together at Tiki Kon 2012!