ESTABLISHED in 1956 in Suva, Fiji, the Hibiscus Festival returned to Albert Park after eleven years away as the country’s oldest and largest festival marked its seventieth year.
Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka officially opened the FMF Hibiscus Festival 2026, welcoming families from Suva, people from around Viti Levu and beyond, and friends from overseas.
“Seventy years. Since 1956, this has been the oldest and largest festival in the country, the one we grew up simply calling the mother of all festivals,” Gavoka said.
“And this year the story comes home.”
The festival was last held at Albert Park in 2015. Gavoka said the return to the ground carried particular meaning for Suva and Fiji, noting that the national flag was first raised there in 1970.
“For everyone who remembers the crowds right across this field, the rides, the lights, the queues at the food stalls, you know in your heart that Hibiscus and Albert Park belong together,” he said.
“It is on this ground, this week, that the festival comes back to where it began. There is no finer place to mark seventy years.”
The anniversary theme, “Ours to Celebrate,” reflects the shared history, identity and sense of community represented by the festival across generations, Gavoka said.
“For seventy years, this festival has brought people together from across Suva and beyond: families, communities, businesses, young people and visitors, creating memories that have become part of our collective story,” he said.
The opening also recognised Liebling Marlow, Lydia Manueli and another pioneering contestant from 1956, who will join this year’s celebrations.
“History is not simply something we read about or look back upon. It lives among us, in the people who were there, who helped shape those early years, and whose memories connect the beginnings of this festival to the celebration we see today,” Gavoka said.
Gavoka said the festival belonged to Suva and Fiji rather than to a sponsor, committee or government.
“That is this festival. It does not belong to a sponsor, or a committee, or a government. It belongs to you. To Suva. To Fiji,” he said.
He said the 12 Miss Hibiscus contestants each carried a province, a community and a cause larger than themselves.
Through the Miss Charity competition, they raise funds and awareness for Fijians who need a hand, while the winner becomes an ambassador for the country for a year.
“The real measure of a Hibiscus Queen has never been the face. It is the character behind it. The courage to stand on this stage. The service she gives. The example she sets for every young girl in Fiji watching and thinking, one day that could be me,” Gavoka said.
He said the festival had supported children’s homes, homes for senior citizens, families doing it tough and rough, and blood drives that had saved lives.
“This has never been only about entertainment. It is Fijians caring for one another and doing it with joy. That is the heart of it,” he said.
As Minister for Tourism, Gavoka said the festival began partly as a way to bring visitors to Fiji but had become an expression of the city and country’s identity.
“We hold Hibiscus for ourselves first, out of love for this city, and the world comes because it is real,” he said.
“A full Albert Park this week tells the story of Suva and of Fiji better than any advertisement ever could.” “Seventy years on, back where it belongs, this festival is ours to celebrate. So let us celebrate it,” he said before declaring the FMF Hibiscus Festival 2026 officially open.”
