"I think it's more easy access for customers," Yolie Abuyuan told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser in early October 2025. She was standing in a freshly repaved parking lot that had not yet hosted a single sale. She and her husband, Gabino, sell produce they grow in Kunia and Waianae. They expected the move to help because vendors would no longer be spread around the stadium's ring road.
The swap meet has now been in the Upper Hālawa Lot for a little over a year, while demolition crews worked on the stadium next door. The first September of numbers from the new site is in, and it shows one clear result. Shoppers kept coming to a market that had moved, packed itself into a tighter layout and lost its shade trees. The vendor side is what changed.
Two Septembers, One on Each Side of the Move
September is a clean month to compare. In September 2025 the swap meet was still at the old site, a few weeks before its Oct. 15 move. September 2026 was its eleventh full month in the new lot. The figures below come from the Stadium Authority's October 2026 monthly report, prepared for its Oct. 26 meeting.
| September | Days open | Shoppers | Daily average | Vendor stall count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025, old site | 12 | 80,220 | 6,685 | 6,904 |
| 2026, Upper Hālawa Lot | 13 | 79,682 | 6,129 | 5,761 |
| Change | +1 | -1% | -8% | -17% |
The shopper line held almost exactly. The market lost 538 visitors across the month, and part of the drop in the daily average comes from an extra open day spreading the crowd thinner. The vendor line moved much more. The report splits stalls into two groups, and both fell. One group's daily average dropped from 305 to 264. The other fell from 270 to 179, a decline of about a third.
So in September 2026, about the same number of people walked a market with roughly one-sixth fewer stalls. The rest of this post looks at why the new lot can hold a crowd on less, and why that matters for the next several years.
What the Upper Hālawa Lot Traded Away and Gained
The Star-Advertiser reported before the move that the new site covered about the same land area as the old one but packed it in more tightly. The old setup wrapped nearly all the way around the stadium. In the new lot, food vendors, food trucks, restrooms and a big-top tent with a stage and picnic tables all sit in the middle. Rows of turquoise shipping containers run along each side under high arched canopies. These roughly 40 containers are the premium vendor spaces. Tent vendors set up beyond them.
A tighter layout means shorter walks. Phoebe Teoscon, who has sold shell lei, Hawaiian quilts and chimes at the swap meet with her husband, Ben, since 2000, made that point to the paper. She also expected the lot to run hotter, because the old site had shade trees and the upper Hālawa lot had none. Kam Tong Lam, a 13-year vendor of carved wood decorations, rated his expectations "so-so." He also saw a real advantage in being able to store inventory on site in his half of a 40-foot container.
The tight layout helps explain the September numbers. Shoppers can cover a compact market without the long loop the old site required, so fewer stalls do not automatically mean fewer visits. The official visitor page now describes the site as having new retail units and an expanded food court. The Ho'okipa Hale Entertainment Stage has live island music, and the food vendors are set up right next to that tent. The swap meet has been running since 1979, and it now has a center point where people stop to eat and listen.
Longtime sellers are still part of it. When the new site opened on Oct. 15, 2025, KITV reported more than 400 vendors, crafters and artists. Among them was Roscoe Kalilikane of HI Nesian Apparel, who had been selling there for 35 years. Getting there took longer than planned. KHON reported in June 2025 that the move, first scheduled for July 1, had been pushed back to Aug. 2. The market finally opened in the new lot on Oct. 15.
The Cranes Across the Lot
While the swap meet settled into its new lot, the stadium was being taken apart. Aloha State Daily reported that dismantling started in December 2025. Live demolition began in February with the side awning on the Hālawa side, and later rounds took off the upper decks along both sidelines.
The Stadium Authority's September 2026 newsletter said demolition was on track to wrap up in November. Two cranes on the north side were taking down the remaining upper sections of the north end zone, and one crane at the south end zone was removing the upper sections there, including the elevator shaft. The field turf has been removed, and much of the material underneath it will be crushed and reused during construction.
The end-zone structures themselves will stay. Aloha State Daily reported that keeping them saves about $90 million in construction costs, according to the developer and the state project team. On Sept. 26, hundreds of people came out for a Community Art Day and added their marks to a lei mural inspired by Hālawa Valley. Native Hawaiian artist Solomon Robert Nui Enos designed it using a pointillist technique, so each person's dot became part of the full image.
In the same August report, interim stadium manager Michael Yadao said groundbreaking on the new stadium could start as early as November or as late as January 2027, with Thanksgiving as his estimate at the time. The new stadium is planned for 31,000 seats, with room to add 10,000 more later, and is targeted to open in spring 2029. All of those dates are projections. Yadao described where he expects things to be by summer 2027: "You're in construction. You're in it."
A Temporary Home Built to Last Years
The September numbers matter beyond one month because the swap meet will not be moving again soon. State officials told the Star-Advertiser that the Upper Hālawa Lot should be the market's interim home for the next five to 10 years. After that, it would become part of the new residential and commercial development planned for the 98-acre stadium site. Spring 2029 falls inside that window. That means the swap meet is likely to operate next to a working construction site for years, and it may see the new stadium open from the same lot.
The state has also described what the arrangement could make possible later on. Samantha Spain, a communications specialist for the Stadium Authority, told the Star-Advertiser that once the new stadium opens, there will be chances for night markets and for swap meet days that no longer have to close early for Saturday University of Hawaiʻi football games and other events. Spain also put annual attendance at about 1 million to 1.2 million shoppers. Holding steady through the move suggests that base stayed with the market.
Getting In Right Now
The way in changed with the move. Here is what the official Swap Meet & Marketplace page currently lists:
- Hours: Wednesday and Saturday, 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday, 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. On Sundays the premium Marketplace section opens at 8 a.m.
- Admission: $2 for ages 12 and up. $1 for kamaʻāina and active military with ID. Free for keiki 11 and under.
- Cash: Every parking gate takes cash only, and some vendors do too. There are only a few ATMs on site.
- Driving: Use Gate 3 at Hālawa, reached only from Kahuapaani Street, and park in the Lower Hālawa lot. Rideshare uses Gate 3 too.
- Skyline: Get off at Hālawa Aloha Stadium Station, Station 9, and walk in through the pedestrian tent on Salt Lake Boulevard.
- Handi-Van: Pickup during market hours is near pole 8 in the Upper Hālawa Lot.
- Leave at home: Coolers, umbrellas, outside food and drinks, bicycles and pets. ADA-compliant service animals are allowed.
The umbrella ban and the bare, unshaded lot that Teoscon described are worth considering together. Plan on a hat and an early arrival rather than midday. The page also warns that the walking surface is an outdoor parking lot and may be uneven, and that wheelchair and stroller rentals are not available.
What's Coming Up Around Hālawa
The stadium site has more going on than the swap meet this season. The Stadium Authority's homepage lists FijiFest Hawaiʻi for Saturday, Nov. 21, from 4 to 10 p.m. in the stadium parking lot. The board's next meeting is Thursday, Nov. 19, moved up a week because of Thanksgiving. That is around when the next public update on dismantling and groundbreaking is likely. The official page lists only the regular weekly hours, so check it before going on a holiday weekend.
Up the road, the ʻAiea Community Association lists the ʻAiea Christmas Parade for Saturday, Dec. 12. It starts at 9 a.m. at Pearl Ridge Elementary, and the Family Fun Fair begins at 10 a.m. next to ʻAiea Library.
If you'd like to know how the stadium redevelopment could affect your corner of ʻAiea over the next few years, or you just want to compare notes on the swap meet's new layout, Melvin Leon Guerrero keeps track of what is changing around Hālawa. Let's Connect.
