Tiki Kon 2012: Ten Year Tour

Haere Mai, Hui Hoa!
Tahitian for “Welcome (back), friends!”

I can hardly believe the 10th annual Tiki Kon is nearly upon us!  We’ve had a great deal of fun here in Portland over the past nine Tiki Kons listening to the evocative and spirited tunes of fabulous bands, savoring the home tiki bars of gracious and hospitable hosts, and enjoying the company of all who make this and every year an event to share in the love and goodwill of our PNW Polynesian-pop community.

It has been glorious. When Heather and I moved to PDX from San Francisco we were struck agog with the help and love of the locals. We were fortunate to have been invited as a home bar for the 2nd annual of what was then called the “NorthWest Tiki Crawl and Home Bar Tour” (the moniker ‘Tiki Kon’ began on the 4th year). Mark Axton, Noel Henneman, Mark Pedersen, John Forsythe, Kim Armstrong and others donated a weekend of their time for a tiki bar raising that turned our small front bedroom into “The Monkey Hut” at the eleventh hour. I knew we had to return the love, so Heather and I joined in with helping and have been supporting Tiki Kon ever since. I’m so very proud of all the people over the years who have worked tirelessly and selflessly for this concept. I thank them and you profusely. Maururu Mai!

Tiki Kon 2012 sets sail on its Ten Year Tour! This is the year we invite everyone back to join the fun with a freshly re-energized event - Haere Mai! We have a gorgeous new home and event HQ at The Red Lion Hotel on the River. It sits on the banks of the mighty Columbia with a front row view of majestic (and active) volcano, Mt. Hood.

Our first surprise: we’ve grown the longest-running Home Bar Tour to twice the amount of guests as previous years. This is the year we all want to see everyone back together to celebrate these past fantastic ten years of Pacific NorthWest ‘Ohana!

Stay tuned for many more new surprises in store for you (hint for the next surprise: start getting ‘Hapi’ for this year’s mug) and for upcoming details on bands, seminars, and this here Tiki Kon blog in the coming months! I look forward to sharing with you all the fun in store for us together, and will see you soon at Tiki Kon 2012!

Maururu Mai,

-Craig ‘Colonel Tiki’ Hermann

Tiki Kon Announces 2012 Tiki Weekender Event

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Media Contact:                 Joe Staskerz, Public Relations, Tiki Kon 2012

                                             PR@TikiKon.com

(503) 609-0503 

www.TikiKon.com

Tiki Kon 2012 Presents its 10^th Anniversary Family-style Weekender Event in Celebration of Poly-pop Culture, Music, Mixology, Art, Fashion, and History that Brings the Past into the Present in Portland, OR

August 3: "Embarkation Lounge" Opening Night Party
Location TBD

August 4: Tiki Kon entertainment, exhibitions, symposiums, marketplace:
Red Lion Hotel on the River
909 N. Hayden Island Drive
Portland, OR 97217
1-503-283-4466
www.redlion.rdln.com

Event Website:

www.TikiKon.com

Ticket Information:

www.TikiKon.com/tickets.html

Portland, OR — TIKI KON, the Pacific Northwest’s original “Tiki Weekender” celebrates its 10th anniversary event with a multi-faceted three-day event packed full of festivities.  In addition to celebrating the Tiki lifestyle with a weekend of live music, art, DJs and more, Tiki Kon 2012 presents a family produced exploration into the visual arts, mixology and culinary symposiums, vintage fashion exhibitions, plus a free daytime shopping Island Marketplace with over 20 vendors.

Tiki Kon was originally conceived as a home tiki bar tour among a handful of like-minded friends and Poly-pop fans in Portland Oregon - the first of its kind. The events second year added commercial bars, live music and an official tiki mug to the event. The Moniker “Tiki Kon” came to be in 2005, with a boutique motel headquarters, vendors and an invitational art exhibit added to the event.

In spirit of its organic growth, Tiki Kon 2012, themed “The Ten Year Tour”, moves into a resort-style hotel, the Red Lion on the Columbia River where the event will draw over 300 attendees from up and down the West Coast. Highlighting the celebration, Paul Nielsen of Munktiki, the genre’s most sought-after creator of tiki mugs and Portland resident will design and produce this year’s 10^th anniversary commemorative mug.  

Portland, Oregon has a long and continuing tradition of Tiki locales and enclaves of Poly-pop culture, including the infamous Pago Pago Club, The Alibi, the Aloha Room at the Heathman Hotel, Steve Crane’s Kon-Tiki and Victor Bergeron’s Trader Vic's. Most of these locations have since closed, but The Alibi is still a feature of every Tiki Kon, and 2011 brought the triumphant return of Trader Vic’s to Portland’s tony Pearl District. And we in the Tiki community along with many others are eagerly awaiting the opening of local mixologist and Tiki enthusiast Blair Renyolds’ Hale Pele, which will be opening this fall in the space that was formerly a stop and friend of Tiki Kon, Thatch Tiki Bar.

For Media inquiries - additional information – interview opportunities, please contact: Joe Staskerz, PR Director, Tiki Kon 2012: PRPR@TikiKon.com (503) 609-0503

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