The strains of slack-key guitar and falsetto drifted on the trade winds yesterday from the Kapi'olani Park bandstand during the 26th Annual Hawaiian Slack Key Guitar Festival.

A stream of musicians came on stage, instruments in hand and a song in their heart, to play for the audience of aficionados who sat on benches, beach mats or on their own chairs to watch the masters at work.

Among the fans were Lawrie and Donna Diamond, who sat on a sun-splashed park bench listening to the strains of Ho'okena, just one of the 22 bands at this year's festival.

The Diamonds were at the festival to enjoy the live Island music they love, but never get to hear regularly at their home in Victoria, British Columbia.

"I just love the music," Lawrie Diamond said. "I like the melody and the guitar licks."

The vacationing couple were among the 2,500 to 4,000 people who came and went throughout the seven-hour festival.

Each year, Milton Lau, festival producer/director, puts on one slack-key performance on O'ahu and on the Neighbor Islands.

"I'm on every island," Lau said. "It's choke on the Neighbor Islands. It's a very special thing. It's our root music, our cultural music."

While the bands played, K.J. Lamar Davis Jr. and his brother, Kainalu Davis, got temporary tattoos on their arms. K.J., a 5-year-old, got a spider and his brother a shark.

"I like Spider Man, so I picked a spider," K.J. said. "My brother picked a shark. There were no needles. It's ink. And yeah, it's going to last a week."

What festival wouldn't be complete without food, and arts and crafts? While the music played, and the announcer chatted up the crowd, some festival-goers wandered around the booths that sold guitars, artwork, jewelry and shave ice. Others just napped.

Not Marilyn Mick, a Manoa resident. Seated in her own beach chair under a giant banyan tree, Mick enjoyed the music and the feel of the cool breeze.

"It evokes Hawai'i," Mick said. "You get to see the young, the old and the masters of Hawaiian music. It's great."