The 55th Kona Coffee Cultural Festival runs November 6 through 15. For anyone driving down from the Kohala Coast, the most useful thing to know is that the $10 festival button now does most of the work. Six of the seven farm experiences on the published schedule are free with the button. The seventh, the Kona Historical Society's living history farm, costs $10 for Hawai'i residents plus the button. Last year, at least one of those farm visits was a $15 workshop on top of the button, with room for six people.

The timing matters on the farms' side too. In its August 2026 newsletter, the Kona Coffee Farmers Association said cherry opened this season at $1.90 to $2.25 per pound. By the association's estimate, a conventional Kona or Ka'ū farm needs $3.11 per pound to break even. The festival puts button holders in those farm stores while the crop is coming in.

What the Button Opens, Farm by Farm

The Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce says the $10 button covers the full 10 days and brings discounted rates at ticketed events, with proceeds going to festival programming, scholarships and infrastructure. On the farm schedule, here is what it covers.

Each visit is different. Greenwell Farms covers the full chain, from the nursery and farm through the wet and dry mills to roasting and tasting. At UCC, you pick cherry yourself. Buddha's Cup pours a guided "Coffee Flight." Doutor Mauka Meadows offers a self-guided tasting. Island Sun shows coffee grown alongside cacao, mango, avocado and citrus.

What Moved Since Last Year

Comparing the 2026 listings with the 2025 festival program shows the farm schedule opening up:

• Hala Tree Coffee used to run a $15 brewing workshop, on top of the button, with one 2 p.m. session for six people. This year it runs hourly walking tours from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Each tour takes up to 12 guests and is free with the button. Button holders also get $5 off at the farm store, and the farm offers an adjusted route for guests with limited mobility if you contact it in advance.
• UCC went from one 10 a.m. tour a day in 2025 to two, at 9:30 and 11 a.m.
• The cupping competition drops from three divisions to two, Kona Heritage and Kona Creative. Entries were capped at 70 and closed October 16.
• The cupping awards move from the Kona Elks Lodge to the Buddha's Cup Sanctuary Event Space on November 15, 1 to 3 p.m. According to the Kona Coffee Farmers Association's October newsletter, the ceremony includes a light lunch, drinks, samples of the winning coffees and score-feedback sheets for entrants.

The 2026 signature art is by Chalet Moleni and honors the immigrant communities that built Kona's coffee heritage, according to the Chamber's July announcement.

Why the Farm Store Counts This Year

Farms are opening their gates more widely in a hard season for the people who run them. The KCFA newsletter put it bluntly: "Are cherry prices below the cost of production? KCFA did the math. Yes." At $2.25 a pound, the association estimates a farm with average yields loses $2,771 an acre. At $1.90, the loss reaches $3,893 an acre. Picking labor alone takes more than half of gross revenue.

Growing more doesn't solve the problem. KCFA calculates that breaking even at $2.25 would take 8,508 pounds of cherry per acre, "well above what most operations produce." The association names three ways forward: replanting for higher yields, higher cherry prices, or "shifting toward selling roasted." A bag of estate coffee bought at the farm store during a festival tour is that third option in practice.

The statewide picture is also tight. The USDA's January 2026 forecast put Hawai'i's 2025–26 utilized coffee production at 17.8 million pounds, cherry basis, down 20% from the prior year. It projected yields of 2,800 pounds per acre, 810 fewer than the year before, at an average price of $2.33 per pound. Those figures cover the whole state, not Kona alone.

The weather mostly spared Kona this year. In KCFA's October newsletter, president Mark Petersen wrote that the late-summer hurricane left Kona "spared the worst of it," while Ka'ū growers dealt with heavy rain and cleanup, and that Kona orchards had moved into "the busy rhythm of picking season." Festival week falls in the middle of the harvest, so the cherry on the trees during your tour is this season's crop being picked.

Building the Day From the Kohala Coast

The addresses fall into two clusters, so plan a morning around one of them:

1. Holualoa. UCC at 75-5568 Mamalahoa Highway and Doutor Mauka Meadows at 75-5476 Mamalahoa Highway are on the same road, and Buddha's Cup is on Bishop Road. All three run November 9 through 13, so any weekday that week works. Book the UCC 9:30 a.m. picking tour first, then go to Doutor for the self-guided tasting before its 2 p.m. last entry.
2. Kealakekua and Captain Cook. Greenwell Farms at 81-6581, the living history farm at 82-6199 and Hala Tree at 82-5966 all sit along Mamalahoa Highway. For all three on one day, choose Tuesday, November 10 or Friday, November 13, the dates when the living history farm is open and the other two are also running. Take Greenwell's 9 a.m. tour, reach the living history farm before its 1:15 p.m. last entry, and catch a later hourly tour at Hala Tree.

Island Sun Coffee in Kailua-Kona is the one farm open on Saturday, November 14, with its last tour slot at 11 a.m. That makes it easy to pair with the Ho'olaule'a that same day.

The rules for children differ by source. The festival's own schedule says children 5 and under get in free. The Chamber's July announcement says 12 and under, and several individual event pages require a button for guests 12 and older. If you're bringing grandchildren, check with the festival before you go.

The Evenings Around the Farm Days

The town events set the bookends, and several new ones fill in the middle of the week:

• Friday, Nov. 6: The lantern parade runs from Kailua Pier to Hale Halawai, 6 to 7 p.m., with an artisan market at the pavilion from 2 to 9 p.m. KCFA has said it plans to march in the parade.
• Saturday, Nov. 7: The Holualoa Coffee and Art Stroll runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Historic Holualoa Village. That evening, the UCC Miss Kona Coffee Scholarship Competition is at Outrigger Kona Resort & Spa. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and the competition starts at 6.
• Sunday, Nov. 8: The KTA Super Stores Kona Coffee Recipe Contest and Big Island Showcase are also at the Outrigger, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., with public tasting after the awards and validated parking. Recipe entries must use 100% Kona coffee and are due October 30 at 5 p.m.
• Wednesday, Nov. 11: The Espresso Martini & Coffee Cocktail Competition, Old Time Kona Stories, and the Nani Keao Mele Mele Concert & Okonomiyaki are all on the schedule. None of the three appeared in the 2025 lineup.
• Thursday, Nov. 12: Chamber Music Night is also new to the lineup. The Latte Art Throw Down runs from 6 to 9 p.m. at Kona Coffee & Tea, 74-5588 Palani Road, where local baristas compete with 100% Kona coffee and the winner takes all.
• Saturday, Nov. 14: The Ho'olaule'a is at Makaeo Pavilion, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.
• Sunday, Nov. 15: The cupping competition awards run from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Buddha's Cup Sanctuary Event Space.

The full calendar, including any changes after publication, is on the festival's events page. For a week of farm visits, the button stays the same $10 whether you use it once or seven times.

If a November morning in the coffee belt has you thinking about how the Kohala Coast fits with the rest of the island's rhythms, Doreen Trudeau is glad to talk it through over a cup of something grown upslope. Work with Doreen. Request a private consult.