Liliha feels like coming home after a hard day's work. Whether you grew up there, moved in recently or just stopped by for a few hours, there's something comforting about the urban Honolulu neighborhood that time seems to have forgotten.

Over and over again, that's what you heard people saying, in one way or another, at yesterday's third annual "I Love Liliha" festival.

While there might have been a bigger crowd at the 26-year-old Greek Festival and a bigger buzz about the "Antiques Roadshow" also going on around town yesterday, nowhere was there a more genuine feeling of family than among the several thousand people gathered for the Liliha festival on the grounds of Kawananakoa Intermediate School.

"I don't really understand it, but it's nice," said Lynda Powell, who first lived in Liliha 17 years ago and moved back earlier this year. "When I went back to my old street, all the same people were still there. It's nice to be home."

Bob Lee, who grew up in Liliha, moved overseas, then to Kona and now lives in Hawai'i Kai, came back yesterday to get a little sense of home. "I like to show the kids all that things that haven't changed since I was here walking to school," he said.

At the festival, you could have your Chinese fortune read, get your blood pressure tested, eat garlic shrimp, drink fresh lemonade, sit in the shade of a 100-year-old monkeypod tree, watch keiki dance to a "Lilo & Stitch" song, talk story with neighborhood church ladies, tour a historic auditorium, take a ride on a 1938 fire truck, find a plumeria lei, jump through the inflatable "Jurassic Park" machine, and even buy a lanyard handmade by women trying to help other women stay out of prison.

Mostly though you could just find a like-minded soul who wanted to talk about that special something that so many others have lost but Liliha manages to keep.

"This is just home," said Tricia Hoffman. She grew up on Stillman Lane behind Kuakini Medical Center, met her husband on the roof of Liliha Public Library (don't ask!) and as an 8-year-old child jumped into the stream running by her home at the height of Hurricane Iwa and was swept all the way to Honolulu Harbor before she was brought to safety and ended up having her picture on the front page of The Honolulu Advertiser.

"Every time, we go by we stop at the little park here and tell the kids the story again," Hoffman said.

Liliha is still the kind of places where neighbors look after one another, said Gloria Chong, who moved onto Hala Drive 10 years ago and found an instant sense of community.

"Everything you need is right here: good bus lines, a library, supermarkets, restaurants and a hospital all within walking distance," Chong said. "There's one 89-year-old lady who lives on our street, and everybody gets together to bring her food on the weekends."

Rep. Corinne Ching, who organized the first "I Love Liliha festival" to celebrate the area's rich history and diversity, said it was good to see people coming back to the event year after year, just like they do with the neighborhood itself.

"It's kind of like a good plate lunch, where each part of the dish adds up to something special," said Ching, R-27th (Liliha, Pu'unui, 'Alewa Heights).

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.