San Diego Pacific Islander Community

San Diego has a very large Pacific Islander community. If you have never been to the Pacific Islands and experienced the amazing weather, the beautiful beaches, warm ocean water and most importantly the local cultures, you can count on the San Diego Pacific Islander community to try their best to bring the islands to you! Through a variety of events throughout the year, the Pacific Islander community, which includes Hawaii, Tahiti, Guam, Samoa, and Tonga (just to name a few), strives to share their culture.
This past weekend, the Pacific Island community was at it again with the 2015 Heiva San Diego held at the San Diego Concourse. This event is produced annually by Reiva Tahiti Productions and includes a pageant, various cultural workshops, and unique food vendors showcasing the taste of the islands, gala dinners, and best of all the Ori Tahiti dance competition. The Ori Tahiti dance competition attracts hundreds of competitive Tahitian dancers, both male and female. These competitive dancers train vigorously throughout the year in preparation for these competitions. They also invest long hours creating hand crafted costumes built of feathers, shells, leaves, wood, and flowers. The dancers are judged on skill, grace, showmanship, costume, and creativity in dance.
As always, this year’s Heiva was a success! It drew several hundred dancers and even more spectators. The next festival in San Diego will be the Pacific Islander Festival, to be held on September 25 and 26 at Ski Beach in Mission Bay. This is an event you’ll want to check out, as it is the largest held on the West Coast and attracts thousands of attendees.

Click Here For More information on the event.

YouTube video: https://youtu.be/pM-7snCilGI.

Photo Credit: Michale Lagman Photography