Panel changes Halloween operation

It's an understatement to say Lahaina has a colorful past. It was the capital of Kamehameha's kingdom when he chose to live there. It was the guarded and sequestered home of some of the most revered ali'i. It was a recreational and resupply port of call for whalers.

It was the home of some of the earliest and most notable missionaries, including Abraham Fornander who collected, translated and preserved many ancient Hawaiian stories and chants. It was the home of the first school and the first newspaper west of the Rockies.

It was the location of the island's first planned resort destination, Kaanapali, and the Lahaina Roadstead drew trans-Pacific yachtsmen. In the 1960s, while it was still a sugar plantation town, it was home to the "Whaling Spree," a notorious tourism promotion that was eventually shut down due to public drunkeness and general rowdiness. At the time, Lahaina had the reputation of being such a low-key town, "dogs slept in the street."

The relatively small whaling and early missionary part of Lahaina's history was promoted by the Lahaina Restoration Foundation through the 1970s, largely because the surviving historic buildings dated to the era, and that led to the center of Lahaina becoming Maui's first historic district.

Protecting Lahaina's historical heritage - see all of above, and more - falls to the Maui County Cultural Resources Commission. Last week, the commission bowed to complaints about a Lahaina event known around the world as "the Mardi Gras of the Pacific." That's a little grandiose for a street full of Halloween revelers on just one night of the year.

It all began with a few fans of Halloween - a holiday that probably began in Ireland - parading down Front Street. The few became thousands. The LahainaTown Action Committee stepped in to help police manage the throngs in 1994. The committee worked with volunteers and business operators to put up entertainment stages, portable toilet facilities and generally to maintain some semblance of order.

The commission denied LahainaTown Action Committee's request to build the entertainment stages and operate craft, food and activity booths in the historic district. That won't stop the Halloween throngs. It will mean the police and Maui County will have a bigger, most expensive role in managing it.