If you love parades and street or park festivals, there are two community celebrations this weekend to check out.

The 92nd King Kamehameha Celebration and the 29th annual Pan-Pacific Festival — Matsuri in Hawaii both reflect the diversity of Island culture and in recent years have overlapped, providing a multicultural one-two punch.

Both offer activities that depict Island traditions, people, song and dance; most events are free and open to all.

The Kamehameha event honors King Kamehameha I, who was head of a dynasty that ruled the Hawaiian Islands for more than a century. Most residents know of his regal presence in statue form, in front of the Ali'iolani Hale in the heart of the Honolulu Civic Center on King Street.

His is the most photographed statue in the state, especially during the Kamehameha ritual of draping his arm-stretched form with scores of long lei. That event will be held today, as a prelude to the big parade tomorrow that begins nearby and marches along Punchbowl Street, then Ala Moana, connecting with Kalakaua Avenue and winding up at Kapi'olani Park Bandstand.

Like the Aloha Festivals parade in the fall, this one depicts the many cultures and faces of a changing, cosmopolitan Hawai'i. There will be marching bands and a few colorful floats, and pa'u riders on horseback, clad in traditional garments.

The Pan-Pacific festivities blend pageantry and traditions from the Islands and Japan, and boasts a ho'olaule'a tonight — with five stages offering a variety of songs and dances on Kalakaua Avenue between Lewers Street and Ka'iulani Avenue — as well as a Sunday parade, also on Kalakaua Avenue, beginning at Fort DeRussy and ending on Monsarrat Avenue near Kapi'olani Park.

The Pan-Pacific festival promotes intercultural friendship to overcome language and geographic barriers, through shared interests and mutual aloha.

KING KAMEHAMEHA CELEBRATION

Highlights: