Eli-Mac welcomes a Hawaiian musical family reunion in San Diego

Everybody has to start somewhere, in music as well as anything else. Eli-Mac, from La Mesa by way of the Philippines and Hawai’i, got going with the King of Rock and Roll and an old-time state song from Louisiana. “One of my first memories of music was my preschool graduation,” remembers the reggae singer, who’s one of the featured performers for the Holo Holo Music Festival, July 13 and 14, at Snapdragon Stadium’s Thrive Park. “I’m not sure how I remember that, but I do remember they lined us all up to sing ‘You Are My Sunshine’ in front of our parents. Every time I hear that song, I think of my preschool graduation. My second memory would be watching an Elvis movie and running to my Dad’s room and telling him that I loved The King.”

Lea Love, another featured Holo Holo performer, describes her sound as “Island Soultry” — with that spelling. “I grew up listening to a lot of R&B music, and being Polyneisan, I was exposed to island reggae at a very young age. Which definitely has an influence on my sound today.”

Promoter Dan Sheehan, mastermind of the festival, held the first Holo Holo at Stanford University in 2022. The name “holo holo” comes from the Hawaiian for “to go out for a trip,” or “to go out for pleasure.” As a boy in Hawai’i, Sheehan says he “grew up listening to reggae music and Jawaiian music, as island reggae” — reggae with Hawaiian musical influences — “was called back then. My first show was Aswad at the Waikiki Shell in Honolulu when I was 8 years old.”

Sheehan attended college in the Bay Area, and later spun records in Guam, but relocated to California for good in 2001, his heart set on promotional work. And he never stopped loving reggae or Hawaiian music. “The idea behind Holo Holo was to create a festival that would showcase the music of the Pacific islands. All these bands have played our reggae festivals, but we wanted to create a festival that was theirs. Not just the artists’, but the fans’.”

He selected Thrive Park at Snapdragon Stadium in part to line up close to another Thrive to-do: the July 19 rugby faceoff between New Zealand’s national team, known as the All Blacks, and the Fiji national team. It will be the first time these long-running rivals have met on American soil.

As for blending San Diego artists with artists outside the area, he concedes that “we got started a little late on the booking for this one. We wanted to fill it in with a good mix of artists. The fact that we are doing it around the rugby match [meant] we wanted to make sure we had artist representation from both New Zealand and Fiji. We have Six60 in the lineup, which is one of the biggest bands coming out of New Zealand. They sell out stadiums in that part of the world.” Maoli, a country-reggae band from Hawai’i, “has been on such a tear, and we really wanted to get them a headlining slot for this one.” J Boog, a Hawaiian-based reggae singer, “is one of my all-time favorite artists, and we have worked together for so many years.”

Lea Love is an Oceanside native who says, “Oceanside will always be home, no matter where life leads.” She gives her influences as “Christina Aguilera, Selena, Mariah Carey, all of the powerhouse female vocalists.” Eli-Mac grew up working in her parents’ International House of Pancakes franchise in Hawai’i. After making it through several rounds of American Idol, she regrouped, moved to San Diego in 2017, and never looked back. “The music scene in San Diego does remind me a lot of the music scene in Hawai’i. Similar sounds and vibes. The beach vibe is very present, and both communities have been very welcoming to me as an artist. And both places have amazing food.” She grew up on R&B and hip-hop. “Some of my biggest influences were TLC, Salt-N-Pepa, SWV, Janet Jackson and Lauryn Hill.” Her latest single, “My Guy,” reworks the Motown classic “My Girl,” originally performed by the Temptations.

She looks forward to greeting the out-of-town acts, especially the ones from as far away as New Zealand and Australia such as Katchafire, L.A.B., and Sammy Johnson. “Most of the people on the bill are from Hawai’i and are also my friends, so I’m excited to see all my friends for sure. It’s gonna be like one big family reunion.”