Visiting halau to perform at Shell

Hula halau from Okinawa, Japan, France, Canada, Colorado and right here in the islands will be competing in the 19th World Invitational Hula Festival Thursday through Saturday at the Waikiki Shell.

Competition will include both solo and group wahine and kane, as well as combined female and male divisions in both olapa (traditional) and auana (contemporary) styles. Special guest performances will be interspersed throughout the three-day event.

Hawaiian arts and crafts vendors will be selling their wares and services on the grounds.

The festival begins each day at 5 p.m.

Founder and executive producer Paulie Jennings, with the help of a volunteer crew from the Hawaii Lions Club, said 14 halau will be participating, along with the Kaimalu Serenaders and participants in the Salvation Army’s drug recovery program taught by kumu Kilohana Silve.

Tickets are $10 to $35, with special three-day packages going for $15 to $90. Group discounts are available. Call the Blaisdell Center box office at 591-2211, charge-by-phone at (800) 750-4400 or go online at www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets will be available at the Waikiki Shell box office.

For more information, call 486-3185 or visit www.worldhula.com.

Pulse launch party at NextDoor

The Pulse, the Star-Advertiser’s entertainment website, will host a free launch party Wednesday at NextDoor in Chinatown, with music by The Bentos with the Prolific Unknowns, The Hot Muffins and DJ Compose from the Nocturnal Sound Krew.

Doors open to the public — ages 21 and older only — at 7:30 p.m. Raffle prizes include tickets to the Dec. 19 Bruno Mars concert.

In its first month, the Star-Advertiser’s HonoluluPulse.com website generated more than 3.3 million page views, according to Google Analytics.

The site provides regularly updated photos galleries and reports on the latest nightlife, parties and social events around the island, concerts, reviews, blogs and entertainment news.

UH to host Italian film festival

Organizers of the annual Cinema Italiano film festival have arranged for a free screening of Paulo Virzi’s "La Prima Cosa Bella," which is Italy’s entry in the foreign language film category for the 2011 Oscars.

The screening, along with a lecture on Italian films by a pair of visiting professors, will begin at 6:30 p.m. Saturday in the University of Hawaii at Manoa Art Auditorium. The film is being distributed by Palisades Tartan.

The film, in Italian with English subtitles, is the story of a misanthropic professor who returns to his hometown to assist his dying mother.

Send us your holiday events

Got a holiday event coming up? Get it listed in our Christmas and New Year’s calendars.
Please submit Christmas listings by Nov. 15 and New Year’s listings by Dec. 1.

E-mail information to features@staradvertiser.com or mail it to Honolulu Star-Advertiser, c/o Features, 7-210 Waterfront Plaza, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Honolulu, HI 96813.

Guide to list holiday displays

If you go all-out on your outdoor holiday decorations, get listed in our Holiday Lights guide. Provide a description of your display, and include your street address and phone number.

E-mail information to features@staradvertiser.com or mail it to Honolulu Star-Advertiser, c/o Holiday Lights, 7-210 Waterfront Plaza, 500 Ala Moana, Hon, HI 96813.

Please submit Holiday Lights listings by Dec. 6. The listing will be published on Dec. 13.

Send us your baby pictures

The Honolulu Star-Advertiser would like to help you announce the birth of your baby on the Ohana page of the newspaper and on our website, www.staradvertiser.com.

Please submit a color or black-and-white photo of the baby alone or that can be easily cropped to only show the baby, along with a copy of the baby’s birth certificate and a signed copy of the Star-Advertiser birth announcement form, available at staradvertiser.com.

Mail the items to Birth Announcements, Features section, Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. For more information, call 529-4777.