This year's 31st annual Teuila festival has been scaled back due to pandemic restrictions but a night market on Friday gave COVID-weary Samoans a much-needed chance for some cultural celebration. 

The outdoor market featured traditional displays of culture, food and dancing typically held at the festival, boosting the spirits of the families who joined in. 

The two-day waterfront night market was held in association with the Samoa Hotels Association at the city’s Samoan Cultural Village.

The Samoa Tourism Authority said that a reduced festival was a necessary precaution for keeping to state of emergency safety rules to stop the possibility of the global COVID-19 pandemic reaching Samoa’s shores. 

But even a cut back version of one of one of the most anticipated events on the country’s calendar left shoppers transfixed. 

The concluding night of the two-day open market featured a range of stalls selling food and crafts, live entertainment and activities for children.

Groups putting on performances included Pacific Love band, Nato Brothers, and Aumaga Dance Group. 

With the conclusion of the night market the festival will now feature outdoor sporting events. 

But members of the public were more than pleased with what they saw on Friday evening. 

One parent who came out for the celebration, Tavita Sale, told the Samoa Observer that the event was a much-needed morale boost for Samoan families in the middle of COVID-19 emergency restrictions. 

“With borders closed and lockdowns, we needed an event like this to bring the children to [so they could] have fun [and have] plenty of food to choose from,” he said.

The father-of-five said that the event was such a success that organisers should give thought to extending it. 

“I like the variety of food sold here, from $2 pao buns to hot dogs and even pastries some cookies and brownies, these are the children’s favourite," he said. 

“This is a successful initiative but there is not enough space to park, there are so many people that came.”

Live music performances drew large, cheering and dancing crowds.

Lale Talo, of the Pacific Love Malouatasi band, said the festival provides a great opportunity for his band to entertain the public with their music on public display. 

“It is our passion and joy to share our talent with our people. With the situation that our country and the world is facing under the COVID-19 global pandemic but we are grateful to the organisers for making this festival possible," he said. 

“We are blessed to have a chance to enjoy [these events] with families and friends and as a country under this initiative.

“The band is made up of my children and relatives; we are performing so many songs, this is not the first time we performed at the festival.”

He said that his musical outfit recently won this year's "Battle of the Bands" contest.

“And I know the festival was an attraction for tourists but we are now our own tourists, it warms the heart to see parents and families come and have fun," he said. 

One usual feature of the festival, the Miss Samoa Pageant, has been postponed until 2022, leaving the current Miss Samoa, Fonoifafo Seumanu McFarland continuing her reign for an unprecedented three-year period. 

The Teuila Festival was established in 1991 to draw Samoa’s diaspora to the motherland and help extend the peak-tourist season that is mostly fueled during New Zealand and Australia's cold winter weather.