HILO >> After a year’s delay, the 28th KWXX Ho‘olaule‘a will return to downtown Hilo on Jan. 18.

In October the organizers of the annual free music festival announced it would miss its January 2024 date after they were unable to get permits to close roads at its usual downtown Hilo location.

Since then Chris Leonard, president of New West Broadcasting Corp. and Ho‘olaule‘a organizer, has repeatedly said the festival will return at an unspecified date and that Hawaii County is supportive of the event.

On Thursday, Leonard confirmed the date of the 2025 festival.

“We’re back on track, and we’re looking forward to putting on our 28th festival in 32 years,” he said.

Leonard said he had to “work through some details” with county agencies, including the Police and Fire departments, in order to resolve their safety concerns about the event, but he reiterated that all involved with the Ho‘olaule‘a have safety as their No. 1 priority.

Leonard in October told the Hilo Tribune-Herald the Hawaii Police Department had reported personnel shortages that would make security at the event difficult, and had recommended potentially holding it at other venues. The most recent Ho‘olaule‘a, held in January 2023, had roughly 20,000 attendees.

But those concerns have been resolved, Leonard said Thursday, and January’s event should feel much the same as previous festivals.

“We anticipate it will be the same, structurally: four stages, plenty of food and drink vendors,” Leonard said.

The lineup of performers has still not yet been finalized, but Leonard added, “It’s always a challenge for us: How do we outdo the last festival?”

With the new date for the festival roughly a year after the canceled 2024 show, Leonard said the Ho‘olaule‘a will likely be held annually in January for the time being. Previously, the festival had regularly been held on the final weekend of September, but the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic forced the 27th festival to be rescheduled.

The canceled 2024 show is the fifth time the festival has missed since its inception in 1993. The 1996 Ho‘olaule‘a was also canceled, and the pandemic forced organizers to skip three years.

“You end up thinking these shows will just always happen. … You end up taking it for granted,” Leonard said. “But it takes a lot of work, a lot of people and a lot of support to make them happen.”