Hawaii County Hawaii Big Island Chocolate Festival
The published name is the Big Island Chocolate Festival, a spring celebration of cacao and chocolate built around a gala tasting evening at a resort on the Kohala Coast of Hawai’i Island. The Kona Cacao Association created the festival and presents it as the educational and outreach showcase for the island’s cacao industry. Its documented homes are resort properties in Waikoloa Village and at Hāpuna near Waimea, on the island’s western shore. Neither host community is the seat of Hawai’i County, which is Hilo, on the island’s eastern side. Spring is its season in every dated layer, and the gala evening is its anchor, with seminars, demonstrations and tours arranged across the surrounding days.
About the Festival
The Kona Cacao Association is the organiser, and the association’s own site is the fullest single source for what the festival is and does. By the association’s account, its board created the Big Island Chocolate Festival and has been in charge of the yearly affair since 2012. The event serves as the association’s educational and outreach occasion for the island’s cacao growers, chocolate makers and the cooks who work with their harvest. Proceeds from the festival benefit culinary education and local nonprofits, a purpose the organiser states in general terms across its pages. A media layer from the state’s tourism authority carries the same published name for the same event, so the organiser’s description does not stand entirely alone in the record. The association frames the occasion as teaching as much as tasting, a place where growers, makers and cooks meet the public and the island’s cacao is explained alongside the finished chocolate. What the record never offers is a crowd figure, and none is supplied anywhere in this article.
Quick Facts
| Item | Detail |
| Published name | Big Island Chocolate Festival |
| Organiser | Kona Cacao Association |
| Setting | Kohala Coast resorts, Hawai’i Island |
| County seat | Hilo, which hosts no documented edition |
| Stated start | 2012, as the organiser states it |
| Documented editions | 2016, 2018, 2019, 2026 and 2027 |
| Venues in the record | Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel; The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort; Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa |
| Next edition | April 29 to May 1, 2027, at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort |
| Admission | Ticketed; current prices are not published in the gathered sources |
| Attendance | No published figure in any gathered source |
History
The beginning of this festival rests on the organiser’s own statement. The Kona Cacao Association says its board created the Big Island Chocolate Festival and has run the yearly affair since 2012, and that stated start is the one this article records. The association also notes, in its own telling, that Kona had previously had an annual Chocolate Festival before its event existed. That earlier celebration is a distinct predecessor: the record gives it no dates, no venue and no organiser of its own, and nothing about it is merged into the festival described here.
The association’s ticketing layers complicate the count without overturning the statement. The layer for 2026 bills the festival as standing in its thirteenth year, and the layer for 2027 bills the fourteenth Annual. Those billings are set beside the stated 2012 beginning in this article exactly as they appear in their layers, unreconciled. No arithmetic is performed on them, and the organiser’s 2027 copy, which remarks that the festival is returning to Hāpuna after COVID, is recorded as the organiser’s remark only. It is not used here to reconstruct which years may have been missed or to force the billings and the stated start into agreement. The venue names in the record shift with the years as well, because the Hāpuna resort appears as the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in the 2016 and 2018 layers and under its Westin name in the organiser’s 2027 layer, and those printed forms are kept as their layers give them.
The fullest early edition in the record is the one held on May 13 and 14, 2016, at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel, under the theme Lavalicious — A Chocolate Salute to the one hundredth birthday of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. A local guide layer describes a guided plantation tour at the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory in Keauhou on May 13 and demonstrations on May 14. The same year’s layer prices the gala at seventy-five dollars in pre-sale and one hundred dollars at the door, prices that belong to 2016 alone. A 2016 layer also names that year’s beneficiaries: the Kona Kohala chefs’ association, a University of Hawai’i endowment for Hawai’i Community College–Pālamanui, and the Kona Pacific Public Charter School. Those names are recorded as that layer’s list and are not presented as a standing roll of beneficiaries.
For a useful comparison, see the Hawaii County Hawaii Kona Brewers Festival for another county festival.
The festival returned to the same Hāpuna property, still under the Prince Hotel name, on April 27 and 28, 2018, according to a luxury travel blog layer. A festival was also held in 2019, because the organiser’s site references its 2019 Best Cacao recognition, but no dates or programme for that year were captured, and none are invented here. One older events listing places a May 13 and 14 edition at the Fairmont Orchid; the gathered text of that listing does not state its year, and this article assigns it none. After a gap in the dated record, the organiser’s ticketing layer documents April 23 to 25, 2026, at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa in Waikoloa Village, under the theme Chocolate in Paradise, with the gala on April 25. The announced 2027 edition, April 29 to May 1 at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, brings the festival back to the Hāpuna property under its current name.
What to Expect
The centrepiece of the festival is the gala tasting evening. Chef and chocolatier booths serve the gala crowd, and in the presentation announced for 2027 they number fifteen or more chef booths. Judges score entries across sweet and savoury categories, so the gala is a competition as well as a tasting. Layers describing the gala speak of unlimited tastings and drinks across the evening. Around that centrepiece, the documented programme includes cooking demonstrations and seminars spread across the festival days. Cacao farm and plantation tours form part of the programme layers, with the guided tour of a working chocolate factory plantation in Keauhou documented concretely for 2016. A student chef competition gives culinary students a judged platform inside the festival. A professionally judged cacao bean taste-off confers the Best Cacao recognition on growers. A silent auction, live music and DJ dancing round out the gala evening in the layers that describe it. For a first-time guest, the practical picture is an evening spent moving from booth to booth with a tasting glass, pausing as the judged categories are announced, rather than a seated dinner served to a fixed menu.
Planning Your Visit
Tickets are the first practical matter, because this is a ticketed festival rather than a walk-up fair. The organiser’s ticketing layers for 2026 and 2027 sell general admission and VIP gala tickets, but the prices themselves were not captured in the sources gathered for this article, so no current price can be quoted here. The only documented gala prices anywhere in the record are the 2016 figures of seventy-five dollars in pre-sale and one hundred dollars at the door, and those are historical numbers, not a guide to what a coming ticket will cost. For the 2027 gala, the ticketing layer sets VIP entry at 5:00 p.m. and general gala entry at 5:30 p.m., while printing the evening’s close as 9:00/9:30 p.m., a closing this article records without settling. Because the host property changes between editions, confirming which resort holds your year matters as much as the dates themselves: Waikoloa Village hosted in 2026, while the Hāpuna property near Waimea hosts in 2027. The gala is one evening inside a multi-day festival, so visitors who want the seminars, demonstrations or a plantation tour should plan for the days around it rather than the gala night alone.
A Sample Itinerary
The shape below follows the announced 2027 edition, Thursday, April 29 to Saturday, May 1, at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, and uses only programme elements the record documents. On Thursday, arrivals settle into the resort and take in the opening demonstrations and seminars as the organiser schedules them. Friday suits the countryside side of the festival, with a cacao farm or plantation tour in the earlier part of the day and further demonstrations, alongside the student chef competition, as the programme places them. Saturday is gala day, and the beach at Hāpuna fills the hours before the evening. VIP ticket holders enter the gala at 5:00 p.m. and general ticket holders at 5:30 p.m., moving among the chef and chocolatier booths while the sweet and savoury judging proceeds. The silent auction runs through the evening, the Best Cacao recognition belongs to the festival’s judged programme, and live music with DJ dancing carries the night toward the close the ticketing layer prints.
How It Compares
One comparison invites more confusion than any other. Kona had an annual chocolate festival before this one, on the organiser’s own admission, but that earlier event is a separate predecessor, not an earlier edition of the Big Island Chocolate Festival, and the association’s festival keeps its own stated 2012 beginning. Chocolate events held on other Hawaiian islands are likewise separate occasions, with their own organisers and their own records, and nothing from them transfers to this festival’s account. The format also separates this event from a mainland county fair: instead of a fairground week, it offers a ticketed resort gala, judged tastings and a short run of seminars and tours along one stretch of coast.
Checklist
- Confirm which resort property hosts the edition you plan to attend
- Buy gala tickets ahead through the organiser’s ticketing layer
- Note whether your ticket is VIP entry at 5:00 p.m. or general entry at 5:30 p.m.
- Treat the gala’s printed closing time as unsettled and check it near the date
- Leave the festival days around the gala open for seminars and demonstrations
- Book any cacao farm or plantation tour place early in the visit
- Ignore any source that places this festival in Hilo
Beyond the Festival
The festival exists to promote an agricultural industry, and the land behind it is part of the visit. The 2016 plantation tour at the Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory in Keauhou shows the growing and making side that the gala’s finished chocolates come from. The Hāpuna property stands beside one of the Kohala Coast’s broad beaches, and Waimea, the upcountry town near the Hāpuna venue, serves the ranch country inland from the resorts. Waikoloa Village, the 2026 host community, is a resort settlement built along the same coast. Through the organiser’s stated purpose, money raised at the gala flows onward into culinary education and local nonprofits, which ties the resort evening back to the island’s own kitchens and classrooms.
Why It Matters
A festival run by the cacao growers’ own association does work that a purely commercial food event does not. It gives island cacao a judged benchmark through the Best Cacao taste-off, gives student chefs a competitive stage beside working chefs, and channels its proceeds toward culinary education and community nonprofits, all on the organiser’s stated terms. Its run since 2012, as the association states it, makes it the established showcase for Hawai’i Island chocolate. The record publishes no attendance figure for any edition, so the festival’s standing rests on those documented roles rather than on any crowd claim.
Frequently Asked Questions
Did Kona have a chocolate festival before this one?
Yes, on the organiser’s own account. The Kona Cacao Association states that Kona had previously had an annual Chocolate Festival before the association’s event existed. That earlier celebration is a distinct predecessor: the record gathered gives it no dates, no venue and no programme, and it is never merged with this festival. The Big Island Chocolate Festival keeps the beginning its organiser states for it, in 2012.
Why do the year counts sit oddly beside the stated 2012 start?
Because the record prints both without reconciling them. The organiser states its board has run the yearly affair since 2012, while its ticketing layer bills 2026 as the thirteenth year and 2027 as the fourteenth Annual. The organiser’s 2027 copy also mentions a return to Hāpuna after COVID, but nothing in the gathered sources reconstructs which years were held or missed. This article records the statement and the billings side by side and performs no arithmetic on either.
What does a gala ticket cost for the coming edition?
No price for the 2026 or 2027 editions was captured in the sources gathered, so none can be stated here honestly. The organiser’s ticketing layers sell general admission and VIP gala tickets, which establishes that the event is ticketed. The only prices documented anywhere in the record are the 2016 gala prices, seventy-five dollars in pre-sale and one hundred dollars at the door, and those belong to 2016 alone.
Does the festival stay at one resort?
No. The documented editions move along the Kohala Coast: the Hāpuna property hosted in 2016 and 2018 under its Prince Hotel name and hosts again in 2027 as The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort, while the Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa hosted in 2026. Hilo is the county seat, but no documented edition places the festival there, and a generated travel page that relocates it to gardens in Hilo is wrong and is not relied on here.
What to Expect From the Next Hawaii County Hawaii Big Island Chocolate Festival
How often is Hawaii County Hawaii Big Island Chocolate Festival held?
The organiser presents the event as its yearly affair, and the dated editions in the record fall in spring, in April or May. The gathered record documents 2016, 2018 and 2019, then resumes with 2026 and the announced 2027 edition, so the surviving documentation is thinner for some years than the organiser’s yearly description suggests.
When is the next Hawaii County Hawaii Big Island Chocolate Festival?
The next edition is the one the organiser’s ticketing layer announces for April 29 to May 1, 2027, at The Westin Hapuna Beach Resort in Waimea, under the theme Chocolate Royale. Its gala falls on Saturday, May 1, 2027, with VIP entry at 5:00 p.m. and general gala entry at 5:30 p.m. Nothing beyond that edition is announced in the record.
Will the dates change?
The documented editions have already moved within spring, from mid-May in 2016 to late April in 2018, 2026 and 2027, and the host resort has alternated along the Kohala Coast. Exact dates and the venue are set edition by edition through the organiser’s ticketing layer, so the announced 2027 dates stand as published while later editions remain the association’s to set.
The Big Island Chocolate Festival closes its gala with the island’s own cacao judged, tasted and argued over, which is precisely the point of an event its growers built for themselves.
