Journey played what promoters are billing as its final Hawaii concerts this weekend, closing out a run that began 52 years ago on a New Year’s Day stage inside Diamond Head Crater. The arena-rock band performed three nights at Neal S. Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, on Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday, with Hawaii Governor Josh Green and Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi on hand to mark the occasion before the crowds even got their first note of “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
Green and Blangiardi jointly declared September 5 and 6, 2026, as “Mahalo, Journey — For 52 Years of Aloha” through official state and city proclamations, according to Aloha State Daily. The honors were presented inside Blaisdell Arena on September 4, alongside a custom Paul Reed Smith guitar gifted to lead guitarist Neal Schon, as reported by BroadwayWorld. Green also thanked the band for its songs and inspiration and encouraged its members to consider relocating to Hawaii, per Aloha State Daily.
A Bond That Started at Diamond Head Crater
Journey’s ties to the islands stretch back to the band’s very early days. The group played its first-ever concert at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom on New Year’s Eve 1973, then flew to Oahu and played its second public concert one day later, on January 1, 1974, at the Sixth Annual Sunshine Festival inside Diamond Head Crater, before a crowd estimated at more than 100,000 people, per Aloha State Daily and BroadwayWorld’s reporting. Schon had also played Hawaii two years earlier, performing with Carlos Santana and the Santana band in 1972, according to Aloha State Daily.
Schon, still Journey’s lead guitarist, said Hawaii “has always been part of Journey’s heart from the beginning,” the outlet reported. Keyboardist and guitarist Jonathan Cain, known for his songwriting contributions to the band’s catalog, said the three-night Honolulu run would include both hits and deep cuts, according to the same account.
Decades of Shows Across the Islands
By the close of this year’s three-night engagement, Journey had performed 37 total shows across Hawaii, including 30 appearances on Oahu and 26 at Blaisdell Arena specifically, attributed to Rick Bartalini’s website via Aloha State Daily’s report. An earlier tally cited in the same coverage put the band’s Hawaii total at 34 performances, a discrepancy that appears tied to when each count was taken. Beyond Blaisdell, the band has also played the University of Hawaii, the Maui Arts & Cultural Center, and Queen’s Marketplace Amphitheatre, per that same attribution…