Overview The Hawaii Food and Wine Festival moves across three islands over three fall weekends, and every chef on the bill has to cook with ingredients from Hawaii's own farms, ranches and fishermen; the festival counts more than 85 farms, ranches and seafood suppliers from six islands on its menus. The run goes from the Island of Hawaii to Kaanapali on Maui and ends in Honolulu. James Beard Award winners Roy Yamaguchi and Alan Wong founded it in 2011. It is a program of the Hawaii Ag and Culinary Alliance, a nonprofit, which has given more than $5.2 million to culinary education, agriculture and sustainability, and to restaurant and hospitality workers after the pandemic and the Maui wildfires. On site The 2025 festival ran 11 events, among them grand tastings, a gala dinner, brunches, golf tournaments and the first FEAST Summit, a professional development conference for the industry. The signature gala dinner is held at the Halekulani in Waikiki. In 2024 five chefs cooked a five-course, wine-paired dinner there with Hawaii community college culinary students working beside them, and in 2025 the gala, Washoku to the World, closed the festival with five Japanese chefs in the kitchen. Audience Among 2025 ticket buyers who live in Hawaii, 71% were from Oahu, 16% from Maui and 13% from the Island of Hawaii. Visitors come from the mainland - California, New York, Texas and Washington were among the top ten states - and from Japan, Australia and Canada. More than 3,000 culinary students have learned from the festival's chefs since 2011. Talent and Influencers The 2024 Halekulani gala put Michael Mina, Maneet Chauhan, David Burke and Hawaii pastry chef Michelle Karr-Ueoka in the kitchen with Alan Wong, with proceeds going to the Culinary Institute of the Pacific. Since 2011 more than 460 chefs, mixologists and winemakers have cooked or poured at the festival, from 27 states and Washington, D.C., and 12 countries including Japan, France, Italy, Australia, South Korea and Singapore. Track record HFWF25 drew 5,006 participants across its 11 events and 1,554 press placements. The alliance counts $27.5 million in direct visitor spending generated by the festival since 2011. Brand presence Sponsors come in at four kinds of role: presenting a single event, holding category exclusivity across the festival, supporting, or backing the education programs. On site they run sponsored events or tasting stations, product integrations and interactive experiences, and select events carry on-stage mentions and speaking slots. Ticket packages can be used for client hospitality, employee incentives and meet-and-greets with the chefs, and sponsors are recognized in the festival's press releases, email and social channels.