The 75th annual Floral Parade today will cap off this year’s Aloha Festivals activities.

The parade, which starts at 9 a.m. at Ala Moana Park and runs along Kalakaua Avenue to Kapiolani Park, will feature seven floats, halau hula, several marching bands, performances by Na Hoku Hanohano award winners Natalie and Iolani Kamauu, pa‘u riders and elaborate flower displays organized by thousands of volunteers of the Aloha Festivals.

“The parade helps people to be grateful that they’re lucky enough to live here,” said Aloha Festivals board co-chair Helene “Sam” Shenkus. “It’s a wonderful, joyful, family-friendly event where you can just enjoy music, enjoy the flowers and enjoy a beautiful time in Waikiki.”

This year’s theme, “Pili­‘aina,” means to have kinship with the land.

It is the final event of the annual Aloha Festivals, which also included the 69th Annual Waikiki Hoolaulea and the Royal Court Investiture Opening Ceremony, held earlier this month. All three of the events have been longtime traditions of the festival, which was first started as Aloha Week in 1946.

“Aloha Week, as it was called, was created as an opportunity to get more tourists to come to Hawaii during the slow time of the year,” Shenkus said. “They created an event that celebrated the Hawaiian culture, that really gave people a reason to learn the culture and experience something unique.”

The events were initiated by a group of former Jaycees, known as the Jaycees Old- Timers of Hawaii, according to the Aloha Festivals website, which Shenkus said was composed of business people of the Waikiki area. The efforts successfully drew tourists to Hawaii by creating opportunities to celebrate Hawaiian culture through music, dance and history.

The celebrations were known for drawing families dressed in recently purchased aloha attire. Pa‘u riders at the events demonstrated the tradition of wearing long, colorful pa‘u skirts, which were made to protect one’s clothing from being dirtied while riding on horseback. During the early years of Aloha Week, a royal ball was also a traditional part of the celebration, where the royal court would attend wearing formal monarchical attire, Shenkus said.

With participants of the parade ranging from the governor, local organizations and businesses, the parade is both a place for cultural perpetuation as well as the passing down of history, said Antoinette Lee, chair of the Floral Parade. Past participants such as Leonard’s Bakery and the East-West Center, as well as current participants like Kamehameha Schools, have had the opportunity to share their work through the parade, she said.

“This parade contributes hugely to serving that purpose, helping history not to be lost,” Lee said. “Our history stays alive through the storytelling in a parade.”

Road closures for the parade will begin at about 8 a.m., Lee said.