Hawaii County Hawaii Kona Brewers Festival

On the ocean side of Hawai’i Island, in Kailua-Kona, a single March afternoon each year is given over to craft beer, island cooking and fundraising. The Kona Brewers Festival pours tastings from dozens of breweries on hotel grounds beside the water, pairs them with dishes cooked by Hawai’i chefs, and sends the proceeds to local nonprofits working in environment, youth, sustainability and culture. It is a ticketed event whose own sources cannot agree on the year it began, and that disagreement is left exactly where the record leaves it.

Kailua-Kona hosts the festival but is not the seat of Hawai’i County; Hilo, on the island’s other side, holds that role.

About the Festival

The published name is Kona Brewers Festival on the organiser’s own site. Other layers print it differently: a magazine news layer from 2018 and a beer-news layer from 2019 both use the form Kona Brewer’s Festival, and news headlines sometimes shorten the name to Kona Brewers Fest. Those forms are carried here unmerged, and the longer county and state wording of the sheet title is a filing label rather than part of any published name.

Behind the event stands the Kona Brewers Festival organisation itself, governed by a board of directors; a magazine layer quotes its board president speaking for the festival. The money it raises is distributed by the Bill Healy Foundation, according to a magazine layer — a distributor of the proceeds, kept to that role and never dressed up as the organiser. A visitor-guide layer describes the occasion quite differently, as a Rotary Club of Kona Community Foundation fundraising event. That description is recorded as that guide layer’s form only; it is not merged with the festival organisation’s own account of itself.

What the money does is stated plainly by the organiser: proceeds support local nonprofits in environment, youth, sustainability and culture.

For a useful comparison, see the Worth County Georgia Georgia Peanut Festival for another county festival.

Quick Facts

Item	Detail
Published name	Kona Brewers Festival (organiser’s site); Kona Brewer’s Festival in magazine and beer-news layers; Kona Brewers Fest in headlines
Host town	Kailua-Kona, Hawai’i Island; Hilo is the Hawai’i County seat
Organiser	The Kona Brewers Festival organisation, with a board of directors
Proceeds	Distributed by the Bill Healy Foundation, per a magazine layer; supporting local nonprofits in environment, youth, sustainability and culture
Grounds	Hotel luau grounds in Kailua-Kona; the hotel’s printed name varies by layer
Beginning	Contested — the organiser’s site states 1996; a board president quoted in 2018 said 1995
Documented editions	2009, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, a rescheduled 2026 edition, and an announced 2027 edition
Next edition	Saturday, March 13, 2027 — blessing 1:30 p.m., gates 2:00 p.m., taps close 6:00 p.m.
Admission	Ticketed; a tourism listing layer put 2019 tickets starting at eighty-five dollars; no organiser price for 2026 or 2027 was captured
Attendance	Three thousand reported for 2018 by a news layer; more than two thousand stated generally by a 2013 organiser release

History

The festival’s beginning is the one point on which its own record openly disagrees with itself. The organiser’s own site states that the festival was established in 1996, and an organiser release from 2009 agrees in its own words, saying the event debuted in 1996 to celebrate the beginning of Kona Brewing Company. Against that, a magazine news layer from March 2018 quotes the festival’s board president — named there as Mattson Davis, president of the festival’s board of directors — saying the festival had run since its inception in 1995, that the first year they did it in February 1995 as a birthday celebration for the brewing company, and that the second year moved to March. Neither year is chosen here: the article does not crown 1996 because the organiser prints it, nor 1995 because a president said it. The conflict is the fact, and it is recorded unresolved.

The numbered billings cannot settle the argument, and they are not asked to. The editions were billed as the fourteenth Annual in 2009, the eighteenth annual in 2013, the nineteenth annual in 2014, the twenty-third Annual in 2018 and the twenty-fourth annual in 2019, while the organiser’s page for 2027 bills a thirtieth Craft Beer Anniversary. Each billing is recorded as a billing only. No arithmetic is performed on any of them, and none is converted into a founding year, because counting backward from a billing is exactly the quiet derivation this record does not permit. An organiser release places the festival on Saturday, March 14, 2009, from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m., on the luau grounds of the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel at 75-5660 Palani Road in Kailua-Kona. A magazine layer describes a longer shape for March 7 to 9, 2013, a multi-day format with side events. An organiser release carried by a beer-industry layer gives Saturday, March 8, 2014, again from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. at the Courtyard King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel, with a pairing dinner on March 6, charity golf on March 7 and a Run for Hops on the morning of March 8. The twenty-third Annual followed in March 2018 in the magazine layer’s coverage, and a beer-news layer documents Saturday, March 9, 2019. A visitor-guide layer reports that the 2026 edition was rescheduled to April 4, 2026 because of a Kona low storm; no original March date for 2026 appears in the sources gathered, so none is invented here. Beyond it, the organiser’s site announces the next edition for Saturday, March 13, 2027, opening with a blessing at the Ahu’ena Heiau at 1:30 p.m., gates at 2:00 p.m. and taps closing at 6:00 p.m.

What to Expect

The core of the afternoon is tasting. Coverage generally speaks of tastings from about forty breweries, and the year-specific figures stay with their years: a news layer counted seventy-two ales and lagers poured in 2018, and a beer-news layer counted forty-five breweries in 2019. Those are participant figures from particular editions, never merged.

Food is the second pillar. Island cuisine from Hawai’i chefs shares the grounds with the beer, and an organiser release counted forty chefs for the 2014 edition. Live music runs through the event in the layers’ accounts. The organiser’s presentation for 2027 includes the Trash Fashion Show, a runway of garments made from discarded materials. A homebrew competition appears in a 2014 layer, fenced to that year’s record.

Around the main afternoon, in some years, sit companion events: a benefit art auction, a charity golf tournament and the Run for Hops, alongside the pairing dinner documented for 2014. They are separately arranged components — never the festival admission itself, and never promised as part of every year’s programme.

Attendance, like the founding, arrives in two layer-bound forms. A news layer reported that three thousand people attended the twenty-third annual in 2018, with tickets sold out in the first two weeks. An organiser-release layer from 2013 stated that more than two thousand people attend. The reported 2018 figure and the organiser’s general claim are never combined into one count.

Planning Your Visit

Tickets come first, because this is a gated event and the best-documented edition sold out within two weeks of release. A tourism listing layer stated that 2019 tickets start at eighty-five dollars, and that figure belongs to that layer and that year alone; it is not presented here as a current price, and no organiser-published price for the 2026 or 2027 editions was captured in the sources gathered. Treat the eighty-five dollars as evidence that the event carries a real ticket price, not as the price itself, and confirm the current figure through the organiser before travelling.

Timing is the second consideration. The documented modern shape is a single afternoon: 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. in both 2009 and 2014, and for 2027 a blessing at 1:30 p.m., gates at 2:00 p.m. and taps closing at 6:00 p.m. Arriving near gate time matters at an event whose whole pouring window lasts about four hours.

Place is the third. The grounds are the luau grounds of the beachfront hotel on Palani Road, but the hotel’s printed name changes with the layer: the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel in the organiser releases of 2009 and 2014, the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Resort in a 2026 guide layer. Follow the organiser’s current directions rather than an older release’s wording. Companion events — the pairing dinner, golf tournament or Run for Hops in years they run — are each arranged separately, with their own booking, and none is folded into the festival ticket.

A Sample Day Itinerary

This itinerary follows the organiser’s announced shape for Saturday, March 13, 2027.

• 1:30 p.m. — Be at the Ahu’ena Heiau for the blessing that opens the organiser’s published schedule.
• 2:00 p.m. — Enter as the gates open and make a first pass around the pouring stations before the grounds fill.
• Mid-afternoon — Work through the brewery tastings in deliberate order, pausing for dishes from the Hawai’i chefs while the music plays.
• Later in the afternoon — Watch the Trash Fashion Show, then circle back to any brewery missed earlier.
• 6:00 p.m. — Finish as the taps close, with the evening in Kailua-Kona still ahead.

How It Compares

The sharpest comparison is with the brewery whose birthday started it all. In both founding tellings — the organiser’s 1996 debut account and the board president’s February 1995 account — the festival began as a celebration of Kona Brewing Company. But the festival is a separate fundraising event, run by its own organisation for local nonprofits, while the brewery is a commercial company with its own history. That history is not imported here.

Other beer festivals elsewhere in Hawai’i are likewise separate events with their own organisers, grounds and records, and nothing from any of them belongs in this article.

A Visit Checklist

• Confirm the current ticket price through the organiser, since no organiser price for 2027 was captured in the record.
• Buy early; the best-reported edition sold out within its first two weeks.
• Plan around a short pouring window — gates at 2:00 p.m. and taps closing at 6:00 p.m. in the announced 2027 shape.
• Arrive in time for the 1:30 p.m. blessing at the Ahu’ena Heiau if you want the full opening.
• Follow the organiser’s current directions to the hotel luau grounds, since the hotel’s printed name varies by layer.
• Treat the pairing dinner, charity golf and Run for Hops as separate bookings in any year they run.
• Carry sun protection and water; the grounds are outdoors beside the water in Kailua-Kona.

Beyond the Festival

The grounds sit inside a town with plenty to fill the rest of a weekend. Kailua-Kona is the main visitor town on the island’s west side, and the Ahu’ena Heiau, where the 2027 schedule opens its blessing, stands by the water near the hotel grounds as a noted historic site. The wider county holds the rest of Hawai’i Island, from Hilo on the wet eastern side to the volcano country in the south — all separate from the festival itself, and none of it part of the event’s programme.

Why It Matters

The festival’s significance is the pipeline running between a good afternoon and local causes: tickets and tastings on one side, distributions to nonprofits in environment, youth, sustainability and culture on the other. Its longevity is real even if its first year is disputed — documented editions run from 2009 to an announced 2027, under billings reaching a thirtieth anniversary claim. Its record also shows how local history survives — an organiser’s printed year and a president’s remembered year, both kept on the table.

Frequently Asked Questions

Was the first festival held in 1995 or in 1996?

The record genuinely contains both. The organiser’s own site states the festival was established in 1996, and its 2009 release says the event debuted in 1996 to celebrate the beginning of Kona Brewing Company. A magazine layer from 2018 quotes the board president saying it began in February 1995 as the brewing company’s birthday celebration, moving to March in its second year. No source gathered reconciles the two, so this article chooses neither and performs no arithmetic on the annual billings to force an answer.

Why is the hotel on the grounds named two different ways?

Because the layers name it differently. Organiser releases from 2009 and 2014 print the King Kamehameha’s Kona Beach Hotel — the 2014 form adds Courtyard at the front — while a 2026 guide layer prints Luau Grounds at the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Resort. Only the printed hotel name varies between accounts.

What will a ticket for the next edition actually cost?

Nobody in the captured record says. The event is ticketed, and a tourism listing layer put 2019 tickets starting at eighty-five dollars, but that figure is fenced to that layer and year. No organiser-published price for the 2026 or 2027 editions was captured, so no current price is asserted here; the organiser’s current listing is the place to check.

Did the festival really move off its March date in 2026?

Yes, on the guide layer’s reporting: the 2026 edition was rescheduled to April 4, 2026 because of a Kona low storm. No original March date for 2026 appears in the sources gathered, so this article reports the rescheduling without inventing the date it moved from.

What to Expect From the Next Hawaii County Hawaii Kona Brewers Festival

How often is Hawaii County Hawaii Kona Brewers Festival held?

The documented editions fall in March in year after year of the record — 2009, 2013, 2014, 2018 and 2019 all sat in that month — and the announced 2027 edition returns to March as well. The single exception shows the pattern is a habit rather than a guarantee: the 2026 edition was pushed to April by a storm. Expect a March rhythm, while remembering the record holds one weather-driven departure from it.

When is the next Hawaii County Hawaii Kona Brewers Festival?

The organiser’s site announces Saturday, March 13, 2027, billed there as a thirtieth Craft Beer Anniversary. Its published shape opens with a blessing at the Ahu’ena Heiau at 1:30 p.m., gates at 2:00 p.m. and taps closing at 6:00 p.m. Nothing beyond it has been announced in the sources gathered.

Will the dates change?

They have before. The 2026 edition left March entirely and landed on April 4 because of a Kona low storm, and the board president’s account describes a February first edition that moved to March in year two. A March date is the festival’s settled habit, not an immovable promise, and anyone travelling for it should reconfirm the day as the edition approaches.

On the evidence gathered, this is a durable island fundraiser: a ticketed afternoon of brewery tastings and chef cooking on the Kailua-Kona waterfront, proceeds flowing to local nonprofits, editions documented across nearly two decades — and a first year its own sources state two different ways, left standing here exactly as they state it.