Few things say Hawai‘i as instantaneously as kiho‘alu, Hawai‘i’s slack-key guitar music. Kiho‘alu is not only the music of the islands; it is the soul.

Being part of the audience at Saturday’s 17th Annual Hawai‘i Slack Key Festival “Kaua‘i Style” felt like a homecoming. After having one foot in Hawai‘i and one foot in Alaska for more than 20 years, my husband and I returned to the islands two and a half weeks ago.

This time we are here to stay. But it wasn’t until we heard the strains of slack key played by artist after artist that we felt like we were really back. What a gift to be welcomed back by these talented musicians!

The concert, organized by Milton Lau of the Kiho‘alu Foundation, was held noon to 5 p.m. in the Jasmine Ballroom of the Hilton Kauai Beach Resort.

A troubled economy and temperamental weather threatened to intervene, but in the end, 16 musicians took the stage to entertain the crowd of about 500 people.

Musicians included Doug and Sandy McMaster, John Cruz, Paul Togioka, Kenneth Makuakane, Bobby Moderow, Stephen Ingles, Walter Keale, Jeff Peterson, Don Kaulia, LT Smooth, Norman Kaawa, and Makana.

Power to the instruments and the microphones went out twice during the concert, but neither incident seemed to dampen the audience’s enthusiasm, nor the musicians’ fervor.

The first outage was during John Cruz’s set. As a result, Cruz was asked to play “island style,” as they used to in the past in backyards without amplified guitars. Of course this was also a play on words, as Cruz is well-known for his classic song “Island Style.” Cruz and his band played on without the amplifiers.

The second outage came during a duet by Stephen Ingles and Kenneth Makuakane just as they were about to play the final chord. The two looked at each other, laughed, finished the song and gave each other a high-five.

Although nearly every performer was asked for a hana hou, the crowd favorite appeared to be former child prodigy, now seasoned performer, Makana, the final act of the day.

The audience was visibly moved during his “Song for Sonny,” a song he wrote in memory of Sonny Chillingsworth, one of Makana’s first slack-key teachers.

Past Slack Key Festivals have been free to the public. But this year there was a suggested $5 donation and, in an effort to cut costs, printed programs were not made available to audience members.

This was the last of the 2009 Slack Key Festival series. Similar concerts were held this summer and fall on O‘ahu and Maui, and in Kona.

According to the Kiho‘alu Foundation Web site, www.slackkeyfestival.com, concerts were begun on O‘ahu in 1982 to honor slack-key innovator Gabby “Pops” Pahinui.

Later they were expanded to include concerts on outer islands, in cities in other states and eventually in other countries.

• Vera Benedek is a journalist and former editor of MidWeek Magazine, a weekly publication on O‘ahu. She and her husband, Russ Josephson, have been hosts of “Island Time,” a tropical music show, on KMXT Public Radio in Kodiak, Alaska, for the past nine years. They will continue producing shows on Kaua‘i for broadcast in Alaska and on the Internet.