The Kona Coffee Festival's Last Four Days Climb From Palani Road to Hōlualoa

"In the Hōlualoa area, particularly on the mauka side, some farmers are reporting the loss of 20% or more of their coffee trees, mostly caused by larger downed trees." Abigail Munoz, executive director of the Hawaiʻi Coffee Association, wrote that to Hawaiʻi Public Radio in late August, after Hurricane Lala.

Eleven weeks later, the 55th Kona Coffee Cultural Festival is winding down, and its final stretch runs right back up that hill. Tonight's events are in town, near the shoreline. Friday is the last weekday for the farm tours on Māmalahoa Highway. Saturday the farmers come down to Makaeʻo to pour. On Sunday the year's best cups get named at Buddha's Cup on Bishop Road in Hōlualoa. Follow the schedule from Thursday to Sunday and you end up standing among the trees that came through the storm.

One $10 button covers almost all of it

The festival button costs $10, gets you into the family events across all ten days, and lowers the price of ticketed events. Children 5 and under get in free. Most of the events below ask for a button from anyone 12 and older. Here is the split for the rest of the week:

• Covered by the button: the Latte Art Throw Down, Chamber Music Night, Kona's Got Talent, the Hoʻolauleʻa, the cupping awards, the Chamber Orchestra of Kona concert, the Quilt & Fiber Arts Show, and the farm tours at Island Sun, Greenwell, UCC Hawaii, Buddha's Cup, Hala Tree and Doutor Mauka Meadows.
• Button plus a fee: the Kona Historical Society's Living History Farm tour, $15, or $10 for Hawaiʻi residents.
• Button plus a real ticket: The Grand Finale, $150 per person or $1,500 for a table of 10. Adults only.

So a household that buys buttons now can spend four days on the festival and pay almost nothing else.

Thursday stays makai

The festival's last stretch starts in town. The Kona Coffee Latte Art Throw Down runs from 6 to 9 p.m. tonight at Kona Coffee & Tea, 74-5588 Palani Road. A few blocks closer to the water, Chamber Music Night fills Mokuaikaua Church at 75-5713 Aliʻi Drive from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. with cellist Daniel Lelchuk, pianist Jason Sherbundy and trumpeter Farley Sangels.

Daytime events in town run through Saturday. The Kona Coffee Quilt & Fiber Arts Show is open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Quilt Passions, next to TK Noodles at 75-5722 Hanama Place. Up the road at Donkey Mill Art Center in Hōlualoa, the exhibition Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument is open 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. You need to register.

Friday is the last weekday at the farms

For most farm tours, Friday, November 13 is the last day. Hala Tree runs Monday through Friday only, so Friday closes it out as well. These are the farms that spent August hauling away fallen trees.

Three of those stops have Holualoa addresses, which puts them in the area Munoz described. At UCC Hawaii the tour includes picking, and Buddha's Cup frames its visit as tasting coffee the way you would taste fine wine. Hala Tree gives button holders $5 off a farm-store purchase.

Bruce Corker, who farms Rancho Aloha on the Hualālai slopes above Hōlualoa, explained to Hawaiʻi Public Radio why losing trees matters long after the cleanup. A replacement tree takes "three or four years before you can get any coffee at all … and probably five years before you get a good harvest off that tree." He also said most properties like his have tall trees along their borders, and many of those blew over. Keep that in mind on a Friday tour. Any gaps you see in the rows will take several harvests to fill back in.

More storms followed during harvest. Hawaii News Now reported in September that repeated severe weather knocked ripening cherries off branches and uprooted trees during peak harvest. The Kona Coffee Farmers Association's November newsletter says harvest is ending now, with the last cherry coming off the trees while pulpers, dryers and mills run at full speed. That means Friday's tours fall during the last days of processing, when the drying and milling are still underway.

Friday night moves back toward the coast for Kona's Got Talent at Keauhou Shopping Center, 78-6831 Aliʻi Drive. Doors open at 5:30 p.m.

Saturday the farmers come down to Makaeʻo

Saturday starts early. The 100% Pure Kona Coffee Half Marathon leaves Coconut Grove Marketplace at 6 a.m., and the 5K follows at 6:15. From 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. the Hoʻolauleʻa takes over Makaeʻo County Pavilion at the Old Airport, 75-5500 Kuakini Highway. It's the festival's largest Made in Hawaiʻi artisan market, and farmers pour their own coffee there.

Six coffee vendors are approved. Aloha Star, Ohia Hale Farms and Two Owls Coffee are returning. Hawaiian Goat Coffee, Malama Kaʻāina Farms and Misma Lani Farms are new this year. Hawaiian Goat is one to visit early, since it won first place in the Creative division at the 2025 cupping competition with an 86.58. The food court includes andagi from Kona Okinawa Kenjinkai, okonomiyaki from Kona Hiroshima Kenjinkai, abalone and prepared coffee from Big Island Abalone, slow-smoked barbecue from Drippy's BBQ, and stuffed mochi from Shaka Bradda Kine Snacks. Demonstrations cover pan roasting, lei making, Japanese calligraphy and Kona Weavers, and UH CTAHR has a table.

The stage runs on a schedule, so it helps to plan around these moments:

1. 9:05 a.m. Kumu Keoni Jenny opens with an oli, then Hālau Hula ʻO Kawaimaluhia performs with Nathan Grace and Kevin Haleamau.
2. 10:15 a.m. Na Leo O Kahakai, the Kahakai Elementary School Ukulele Ensemble.
3. 11:45 a.m. Lei contest winners are announced in six categories, then all the lei go up for silent auction.
4. 1 p.m. The Tavares Bros, Isaiah and Joshua.
5. 2:15 p.m. Kona Daifukuji Taiko.
6. 2:45 p.m. Miss Kona Coffee 2027 and Miss Aloha Hawaii 2027 close the day.

If you're making a lei, online registration closes Wednesday, November 11. After that you can only sign up on-site, with drop-off from 9 to 10 a.m. That evening the Grand Finale heads south to The Theatery in Kealakekua, with doors at 5:30 p.m.

Sunday ends on Bishop Road

The Cupping Competition Awards Ceremony runs from 1 to 3 p.m. on Sunday, November 15 at the Buddha's Cup Sanctuary Event Space, 78-1377 Bishop Road. You can taste the winning coffees there. The format has changed since last year. The 2026 rules have just two divisions. Heritage is limited to washed Kona Typica from the Kona Coffee Belt, with no commercial yeasts, bacteria or inoculants. Creative accepts any Kona-grown variety and any process. Judging is double-blind on the SCA 100-point scale, and anything scoring below 80 is disqualified. Entries were capped at 70, and each division awards first through third place. The 2025 competition had three divisions, including a Certified division, and drew 96 entries.

For reference, here is who won the two divisions that continue this year:

This year's winners will be judged on beans picked in a tough season, both in the weather and in the money. The farmers association's August newsletter put the opening cherry price at $1.90 to $2.25 a pound. It estimated that a conventional Kona or Kaʻū farm needs $3.11 a pound to break even, and that picking labor takes more than half of gross revenue. The November issue adds a longer trend. Hawaiʻi coffee production fell about 32% between 2021-22 and 2023-24, while average cherry prices rose about 11%. Prices went up, but crops shrank faster, and that's the backdrop for the coffee being poured at Buddha's Cup on Sunday.

The other Sunday option is indoors and runs at the same time. The Chamber Orchestra of Kona plays Dvořák and Tchaikovsky at the Kona Elks Lodge, 75-170 Hualalai Road. Doors open at 2 p.m. and the show starts at 2:30, while the cupping ceremony is still underway, so you'll need to pick one.

We follow the coffee belt year-round at Wai Pacific, from Hōlualoa farm roads to the shoreline in town. If you'd like to talk through the mauka side of Kona, or just compare notes on the best cup you tasted this week, we'd love to hear from you. Start Your Island Real Estate Experience.