Hot ticket: The Mai Kai’s 60th anniversary celebration on Dec. 28 including symposia by Sven Kirsten and Tim Glazner

Ft. Lauderdale. December 28. The Mai-Kai. Big hoopla to celebrate its 60th anniversary — including presentations from Sven Kirsten and Tim Glazner, orchestrated by Christie “Tiki Kiliki” White. I planned a short jaunt, so’s I could be there. How about you Southeastern Floridians? Sure to be the hottest ticket in town!

The Mai-Kai: National Register of Historic Places

Named to the National Register of Historic Places two years ago, The Mai-Kai is the last remaining example of the classic mid-20th century Polynesian supper club, and continues to be a nexis for much scholarship. Indeed, to launch the birthday festivities, Christie White aka Tiki Kiliki has arranged for two big-name speakers to host afternoon presentations: Sven Kirsten, renowned author of many books on tiki and Polynesian pop history, and Tim “Swanky” Glazner, who published the history of The Mai-Kai this year.

I’m particularly excited to meet and hear from Sven Kirsten for the first time. And I hope that if you’re in the area and able, that you can come too!

How to get info and tickets:

• EVENTS SUMMARY: The Mai Kai’s events page provides a summary of all the events going on that day.
• SYMPOSIA TICKETS: Note: You need a ticket for the symposia — here’s the buy-it page. Just $10 plus a $1.50 processing fee.
• DINNER & SHOW: If you want to stay for dinner and the show, you need a separate reservation for that. Return to the Mai-Kai’s Events page for info on that — you need to call. I see that the Mai Kai will be debuting an all-new show, choreographed by Mai-Kai owner Mireille Thornton.
• DRINKS AT THE BAR: The Molokai opens at 3:30 and for the night, will offer three historic “lost cocktails” featured on Mai-Kai’s early drink menus. Note: It’s been my experience at the Hukilau that on special-event nights like this, you must have dinner reservations to get into the bar; I’m not sure this will be the case on Dec. 28, but best to call ahead and ask ahead if you were only planning to stop by for a drink.
• Slammie also has a good write-up about the event on his blog, Atomic Grog.