This Saturday, November 7, the Holualoa Coffee and Art Stroll fills Historic Holualoa Village from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Up to 25 coffee farms will pour along Mamalahoa Highway, and visitors vote for a favorite cup. Admission is the $10 Kona Coffee Cultural Festival button, and according to the Donkey Mill Art Center, that button "grants access to all KCCF-related events throughout the 10-day festival."
The 2026 festival schedule has three Holualoa farm events running Monday, November 9, through Friday, November 13. If you live in Holualoa, Kona Palisades or anywhere else mauka of Kailua, the button you pin on this Saturday keeps working five minutes from home all next week. Saturday is the sampler. The weekdays are when you go back to the farms whose coffee you liked.
Saturday, November 7: the coffee starts before the stroll does
The official start time is 9 a.m., but the festival's stroll listing says the coffee farms are set up from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. That gives you an hour of pouring before the posted opening. Food options are spread around the village instead of gathered in one court.
The day falls on a Saturday this year. The Holualoa Village Association notes that the 2025 stroll, its 26th, was on Sunday, November 9. If your weekend has a regular Saturday routine, such as the Keauhou Farmers Market, which the Kona County Farm Bureau lists every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon at Keauhou Shopping Center, the two now overlap.
Parking in the village is limited, and the festival recommends carpooling. Shuttles run from two places, the Holualoa Elementary parking lot and the Imin Center. No 2026 shuttle frequency or route map has been posted, so plan to be patient at the pickup.
The elementary school is also its own stop. The Holualoa School Legacy Project runs from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. in the cafeteria at 76-5957 Mamalahoa Hwy. One way to order the morning from the posted times:
- Arrive close to 8 a.m., when the farms start pouring, using a carpool or the shuttle from the Holualoa Elementary lot.
- Visit the Legacy Project in the school cafeteria before it wraps at 11:30 a.m.
- Walk the village and taste, keeping track of your favorites for the People's Choice vote.
- Get to the Donkey Mill Art Center before 2 p.m., when its demonstrations end.
The People's Choice ballot is where Saturday becomes useful for the rest of the week. The farms you vote for are the ones worth seeking out once the crowds are gone.
At the Donkey Mill, the workshop sign-ups have closed
The Donkey Mill Art Center is hosting cultural activities on stroll day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The center's own description sets out the plan:
"On Saturday, November 7, from 10:00am to 2:00pm, immerse yourself in traditional activities such as lauhala weaving and lei making. While you're here, explore the exhibition on view October 25 - December 13, visit the shop, and wander the gardens."
Three hands-on workshops are offered, each in a morning session from 10 to 11:45 a.m. and an afternoon session from noon to 1:45 p.m.
- Lauhala Bracelet with Nanette Bell teaches the basics of weaving a bracelet from natural, locally harvested lauhala.
- Lei Hilo with Allison Tan uses fresh ti leaves to make a single-strand lei in the hilo, or "to twist," style. Flowers or ti leaf roses can be added.
- Whittling a Wooden Whistle with Ron Snyder and Cathy Taggett turns a Kona coffee branch into a whistle, in a style first shared by master craftsman and drum maker Ralph Akers.
Registration closed at midnight on Saturday, October 31, and the center notes that drop-ins are not guaranteed a spot. If you missed it, the waiting list is still open. Email [email protected] or call 808-322-3362 with the name and time of the session you want. The workshops are family-friendly. Children 8 and up can take part with an adult, and both the adult and the child need to be registered.
The exhibition, shop and gardens don't depend on a workshop seat, and the center lists the exhibition through December 13. Anyone at the stroll can walk in and see them.
Monday through Friday, the button brings you back up Mamalahoa Highway
Most of the festival's farm tours on the 2026 schedule are in Kealakekua and Captain Cook. Three of them are listed in Holualoa, and all three run November 9 through 13:
- UCC Hawaii Kona Coffee Picking & Farm Experience. The store opens at 9 a.m., with tours at 9:30 and 11 a.m.
- Buddha's Cup: Tasting Coffee Like Fine Wine. 9:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.
- Doutor Coffee "Mauka Meadows" Self-Guided Farm Tour & Coffee Tasting. 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., last entrance at 2 p.m., at 75-5476 Mamalahoa Hwy. The event page says it is free with a $10 festival button for anyone over 12.
The three formats differ. UCC Hawaii is built around picking and a guided farm visit. Buddha's Cup frames its session as tasting coffee the way you would taste wine. Mauka Meadows is self-guided and has the longest window of the three. Saturday's stroll gives you a minute at each farm's table. These weekday sessions give you a whole morning at one farm, during the week when Kona coffee is being harvested and celebrated.
The weekday program doesn't stop at the farms. The festival schedule also lists an exhibition at the Donkey Mill Art Center, "Revisiting Kealakekua Bay, Reworking the Captain Cook Monument," November 11 through 14 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Those afternoon hours run later than the 2 p.m. finish on stroll day, so a weekday visit can follow a morning farm tour.
The Donkey Mill describes the button as covering KCCF events throughout the festival, but each event sets its own details, such as tour times, sessions and last entry. Before you drive up, check the event page for the session you want.
The festival's pages give two different age rules
The festival publishes two versions of who needs a button. The 2026 event schedule says children age 5 and under are free. The event pages for the Holualoa School Legacy Project and the Mauka Meadows tour say the $10 button applies to attendees over 12. If you're bringing kids between 6 and 12, check with the festival or the event host before you go, especially for the weekday farm visits.
Buttons can be bought at any festival event, and the schedule points to a list of other retail locations. The Donkey Mill says buttons are available both before and during the event on November 7. One purchase on Saturday covers the rest of the week, so whatever you pay at the stroll is all you spend on admission through Friday.
Last year's ballot, kept for reference
The Holualoa Village Association's stroll page still links to its 2025 map and says it hopes to see visitors again in 2026. The festival's 2026 listing promises up to 25 farms but doesn't name them. On stroll day, the farms in the village are the lineup.
The association describes the format as farms hosted by the galleries and shops of Holualoa Village, with two awards: People's Choice, decided by popular vote, and Chef's Choice, picked by local chefs. The 2025 results show how the two judging methods compare:
- 2025 People's Choice: Hawaiian Goat Coffee, Aloha Star Coffee Farm, Oka Family Farms and Two Owls Coffee.
- 2025 Chef's Choice: Nani Gourmet Coffee, Kona Rainforest Organic Coffee and Hawaiian Goat Coffee.
Hawaiian Goat Coffee was the only farm on both 2025 lists. That shows how far the crowd's palate and the chefs' palates can differ, which is a good reason to read your own ballot as the list of farms to follow up with. Those are 2025 results. Whoever pours on November 7 will make up the 2026 ballot.
If the coffee farms along Mamalahoa Highway have you curious about what the land and homes in Holualoa and the rest of North Kona are worth right now, Hawai'i Estates, LLC works this slope from our office in Kealakekua and knows its parcels, roads and harvest seasons. Start with a quick look at your own place. Get your Instant Home Valuation.
