LahainaTown denied a Halloween permit

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WAILUKU - While it looks as though Lahaina's big Halloween bash on Front Street could start to shrink beginning this year, Maui revelers won't have to put their blue beehive Marge Simpson wigs and sequined-Elvis jumpsuits in long-term storage.

The Maui County Cultural Resources Commission on Thursday denied permits for the LahainaTown Action Committee to conduct a Halloween program, including a costume contest. But it can't prevent Halloween from taking place, and Maui police said they will prepare for a crowd, organized or not.

Lahaina is designated a state and national historic district, and members of the Cultural Resources Commission concluded Thursday that the annual 30,000-person costume party does nothing to promote the town's Hawaiian cultural history. In addition, the cases of public drunkenness, lewd behavior and risque costumes insult the legacy of the town as a former capital of the islands, opponents said.

The commission voted 6-0 against requests for permits to set up food, activity and craft booths as well as erect stages by the LahainaTown Action Committee. However, the commission did approve a permit for the afternoon keiki costume parade held by Soroptimist International of West Maui.

The commission may be seeking to tamp down the party, but it is expected to go on, said members of LahainaTown Action Committee, a business marketing group involving Lahaina hotel, shop, activity and restaurant operators. The committee began to coordinate the Halloween event when it was drawing hundreds of revelers to town in the 1980s, with no controls in place.

But the coordination that closed off Front Street and sponsored a costume contest increased the appeal, drawing thousands of people from around the world to Maui during what is otherwise a slower tourist period.

As the Halloween event grew in popularity, bars and restaurants booked entertainment, and set up their own costume contests. That won't stop, merchants said.

However, without formal advertising and outdoor booths for food and crafts and music venues as well as the extremely popular costume contest, Lahaina's Halloween could be hurting soon, supporters of the event said.

"It was a decision that everybody that we told are in absolute disbelief about," said LahainaTown board member Joan McKelvey. "How are they going to run the thing? Who is going to oversee it? Who will pay for the two extra policemen we pay for and clean up the day after? That is a monumental task in itself."

She said the committee pays to rent the 22 portable toilets that are placed on the streets to stem public urination.

"That's one of the main reasons we got involved," McKelvey said. "We don't even get a penny out of this. All our T-shirt sales go to local charities. What will they do now?"

People will still come, McKelvey said. With the business association barred from sponsoring any events, the county may need to pick up the slack, she suggested.

County spokeswoman Mahina Martin said the administration and county and state agencies - parks, health, transportation and police - will need to meet in the near future to figure what the county's responsibilities will be in the coming years.

Martin also said she can understand why the Cultural Resources Commission voted the way it did. The event grew up fast, kept getting bigger and bigger. The event and Lahaina's commercial activities are overshadowing nascent efforts to emphasize Lahaina's pre-contact history as the former capital of Hawaii.

"This didn't just come out of nowhere; people have been talking about doing this for years," Martin said. "But Halloween wasn't killed by the CRC decision. I think it dampens it. But we would encourage people to think about where they want to celebrate Halloween now."

LahainaTown Action Committee Executive Director Rina Sampson said that the commission's decision means that the committee will no longer be able to advertise the event, which was done worldwide.

Event opponents have said they hope that with less advertising, fewer people will come. And then the historic district will be better preserved. Besides, they said, Halloween is not a Native Hawaiian - or host culture - holiday, so it is not appropriate for the Lahaina Historic District.

"What do you want Lahaina to be remembered for, the host culture's importance as far as the home of the alii or royalty or for the Halloween party," said commission member Kalei Moikeha. "It just seemed like it was very disrespectful for the host culture to allow these stages to be set up in the district."

Moikeha said the commission's role is to protect, preserve and restore the historic districts of Maui, and the members were doing what's right.

The cultural opposition to the LahainaTown Action Committee's handling of the event has snowballed since 2004, when the committee approved T-shirts that featured a headless Hawaiian warrior on horseback holding a pineapple. McKelvey said the insensitive shirts were a mistake and were never sold.

The party also clogs four blocks of Front Street with people and Honoapiilani Highway with traffic for much of the day and night.

A new county shuttle bus system was credited with reducing congestion last year. Martin said the county will evaluate whether to continue the special bus service, which was in place for the Lahaina Fourth of July celebration on Friday.

The Planning Department had recommended approval of the action committee permit, saying that the music stages, arts booths and family-orientated events actually promoted more creative outlets to bar hopping.

The one-night party has been in existence since a local man put together a harem-themed wedding in the mid-1980s and walked his wedding party down Front Street. He did it again the next year for fun, and the costume party blossomed from there, McKelvey said.

But it wasn't officially coordinated until the LahainaTown Council stepped in in 1990 and worked with police to close a section of Front Street to accommodate the crowd in the street. Police are scheduling an additional 80 officers that night to try to control the sometimes unruly late-night crowds.

Because Halloween falls on a Friday this year, police Capt. Charles Hirata, commander of the Lahaina Patrol District, said the crowd could be larger than last year.

He said police still plan to close a portion of Front Street to traffic during the night and to have additional officers working to monitor the crowds.

Last Halloween, police arrested 24 people for 32 offenses, most involving disorderly conduct, underage drinking and drunken driving. In addition to having uniformed officers posted along the street, special arrest teams walk through the crowd looking for illegal activity.

"Our response is going to be the same, no change," Hirata said. "We know there still are going to be a lot of people coming into town, despite not having an organized event. It's not like Halloween is being canceled."

Staff Writer Lila Fujimoto contributed to this report. Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.