Music and energy filled the Green at the inaugural R.O.O.T.S (Reconnecting Our Oceans through Service) Festival on Saturday afternoon. The event celebrated Pacific Islander cultures, gathering over a hundred community members from across the Bay Area. M-A Football coach and Bears Without Borders leader Jesse Fifita and his wife, Mele Fifita, hosted the showcase to raise funds for Bears Without Borders, an M-A Football-affiliated community service program, and the group’s annual service trip to the Kingdom of Tonga.
Vendors set up food booths, jewelry stands, and merchandise stores near the bear statue. Food stands sold a variety of Pacific Island dishes, including savory musubi, grilled barbecue, and shaved ice, as well as beverages like lemonade and ‘otai, a refreshing Polynesian fruit drink.
While attendees arrived on campus, people in the growing crowd enjoyed gathering and reconnecting. “It’s nice to catch up with people that I haven’t seen in a long time,” Tafuna Toilolo, an eighth grader at Cesar Chavez Ravenswood Middle School, said.
Before the performances began, DJ Realdeal and DJ AM played an energetic mix of music as participants filled the Green. To kick off the event, the R.O.O.T.S organizers took to the stage to express gratitude, lead a prayer for the gods and the community, and hype up the crowd.
The show opened with a performance by students from St. Ignatius College Preparatory School, a high school in San Francisco, whose rhythmic dances were met with loud cheers from the crowd. Students enrolled in Oak Pin (Oakland Pacific Islander Network) soon followed, with their elegant performances matching the music’s lively energy.
“The event brings our community closer together, and it can help us all be as one, instead of being as individuals, and all just catch up with each other,” Toilolo said.
Event coordinator M. Fifita explained that the festival aimed to reconnect Pacific Islander communities through entertainment and foster personal connections. “We wanted to find a way to bring us together in person,” she said. “Music, community, food, and entertainment are easy gateways to come together.”
After Oak Pin’s set, another group of dancers made their way onto the stage in coordinated orange and black outfits. Their performance moved between sharp, synchronized formations and lower, grounded moves, keeping the crowd engaged as dancers shifted across the stage.
Following the dances, another local high school group followed with a lively performance in white tops and bright, multicolored skirts. Later in the set, performers used red props, raising and lowering them in unison as they danced.
M-A performers from the Pacific Islander Club closed out the school performances with several sets of their own. A group of girls in burgundy outfits opened with graceful arm movements and steady formations before leaving the stage to change costumes. A group of boys with white tops, colorful skirts, and red feather headpieces then brought the performance beyond the stage and out onto the grass. The girls later returned to join them, filling the space with colorful costumes and energetic choreography. At the same time, families and students gathered around the stage to capture the final moments of the performance.
“Today, we gave it our best, and we gave it our all,” performer and M-A senior Anja Motuliki said.
The festival’s energy was one of its biggest strengths for attendees like Tareesa Bumside, an eighth grader at Oakwood School. “The event brings good, positive energy, and it’s something to keep people busy,” she said.
After the cultural dance performances, the festival came to an end with a small concert. Performers rapped and sang on stage as children joined them, while attendees crowded around the front of the stage to cheer, dance, and sing along. The concert turned the closing moments into a lively celebration, ending the festival on an upbeat note.
