– that’s one of the headlines running in local Hawaii news for days now. It’s not everyday or a lot of times we see Jpop acts on concerts outside Japan- a huge scale at that, and being covered locally widely. This is the first time Arashi (storm in English) is playing in the US.
It took the Hawaii Tourism Authority 2 years and a 15th year celebration to lure Arashi in. According to concert promoter Tom Moffatt “Of all the concerts I’ve done, I think this is the biggest. To build a stage like this from scratch, the number of high definition screens, nobody has ever done that before.” He added “You know, I’ve done great acts like the Rolling Stones and Elvis…but the excitement level on this one is, because the media involvement, is unprecedented, really.”
The stage is almost ready. Part of the draw of the concert for locals who haven’t even heard of the group Arashi before or who would not even understand them, is to see what the show is about, seeing the huge stage being constructed. By any definition, this is a $8 million worth of production- which was paid for by the band. They’re bringing the largest stage in Hawaiian history at 63 feet high and 280 feet wide, moving platforms and 13 HD screens, which took dozens of sea and air cargo containers to bring, to Hawaii.
How are they being received? Watch local Hawaii news coverage on the upcoming concerts.
