By Barbara Beckley
We’re talkin’ totally terrific tiki! Don your Hawaiian shirts, leis and Betty Page garb and hightail it to San Diego for Tiki Oasis, the world’s original and largest Tiki event, July 31 – August 4, 2024, at the Town and Country Resort. This year’s theme is “Way Out West” – and you can bet it will be way, way out. With five swinging nights and four sunny days of tiki everything – live music, pool lounging, fashion show flash mobs, swanky suites, sunset dining, disc jockeys, art exhibit, edu-fun seminars, bustling Tiki Marketplace, from tiki carvers to dashboard dolls, tiki mugs, apparel, velvet paintings, and more; tropical cocktails – did someone say Mai Tai – curated by top mixologists; top tiki personalities like Shag, Bosco, Charles Phoenix, Bad Madge, and so much more!
Colorful Tiki Oasis Gals, photo by Tim Hardy
The Art Exhibit and Tiki Marketplace are FREE and open to the public! Tickets are available now on the website for the seminars, Wednesday night kick-off Luau at the beachfront Catamaran Resort Hotel, and Sunday Night tickets are available à la carte!
Tiki Oasis Marketplace
“Way Out West” celebrates the California tiki vibe of the 1930s to ‘60s when a new kind of Gold Rush occurred: visitors in search of liquid gold – Zombies and Mai Tais! From Don the Beachcomber to Trader Vic’s, a tiki tidal wave hit popular culture.
Here’s a peek:
Wednesday, July 31st, the kickoff Tiki Oasis Luau at the Catamaran Resort Hotel on the shores of Mission Bay!
Non-stop entertainment: Thursday Night Headliner Ixtahule. Friday Night Headliner Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys. Saturday Night Headliner Al Jardine (a founding member of the Beach Boys) and his Endless Summer Band. Sunday Night ‘60s Showcase with Shake, Shout, Shimmy! Mike Stax Emcee – DJ Tony Tyger. Also, The Ogres, The Apemen, San Diego legends The Crawdaddys – Record vendors, and more. Plus live all weekend: Deke & the Whippersnappers, Dirty Fuse, The Double Whammy, El Vez & the Trailer Park Casanovas, Fisherman, The Manakooras, The Outtasites, Par Avion, Project: Pimento, The Satin Dolls, The Scimitars, Surfer Joe, Taimane Gardner, The Untamed Youth, and Venturesmania.
Super Seminars including Thursday: Sexitecture – Feminism and Mid-Century Architecture; How to Dress Your Tiki Daddy; Screening of “Bosko and the Rebirth of Tiki;” (Nearly) Everything You Know About Rum in a Mai Tai is Wrong. Friday: Posing for Photos…Underwater! Desert Polynesia – A Book Preview of Palm Springs Tiki; Way Out West in Waikiki – The Hawaiian Steel Guitar and other Tiki Twang; California Au-Go Go with The Devil-Ettes! Spice Tales: A Tiki Cocktail Tutorial. Saturday: A History of California Music; Influential Women in Tiki; San Francisco’s Tonga Room: From Pool to Hurricane Tiki Hut; From Victor to “The Trader”- A 90-Year Cocktail Odyssey. Sunday: Knotts Berry Farmland! Picasso Was a Polynesiac – How Tikis Inspired Modern Art; Makalapua Macrame; Latinos in Tiki – Cultural Influence and Innovation.
It’s always Tiki Oasis Time for author Barbara and Robert Arends
Don’t forget the Sponsors – they often throw free “room” parties tooting their wares. Drumshanbo Gunpowder Irish Gin, Planetary Rum, Liquid Alchemist, Trader Vic’s (celebrating their 90th Anniversary), Flor de Cana Rum, Re’al Infused Exotics, Don the Beachcomber, and Dos Maderas Rum.
Since 2001, founders/producers Otto and Baby Doe von Stroheim have put on the best tiki gathering ever. A not-to-miss celebration that’s fun, all-inclusive, and promotes education and historic preservation of American Pop Culture.
Be there or be square!
