End of an era: Last Kona Brewers Festival to benefit 17 nonprofits

For the past three decades, the Kona Brewers Festival has been supporting craft beer while also giving 100% of the event’s proceeds, totaling about $1.8 million, to community nonprofits.

But this yearʻs 30th anniversary festival, which takes place Saturday on the grounds of the King Kamehameha Kona Beach Resort, is expected to be the last.

“We want to go out with a real upbeat energy, and we’ll see what happens next,” said Kate Jacobson, co-director of the festival.

The nonprofit Ke Kai Ala Foundation, which hosts the festival, has selected 17 nonprofits that focuses on youth, culture and the environment to benefit from its last hurrah. The goal is to raise $80,000 from the ticket sales for the community organizations.

“Any group that has all three, that’s important to us,” Jacobson said.

Dozens of nonprofits have benefited from the festival over the years, with recipient organizations providing volunteers to do various jobs at the event, which includes a family-friendly 5K Run for the Hops, a Trash Fashion show, food, music and of course craft beer from 11 Hawaiʻi-based breweries.

Among the nonprofits that will benefit again this year is the Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund, an organization committed to protecting native wildlife through education and coastal cleanups.

Megan Lamson, Hawai‘i program director for the nonprofit, first applied to be a beneficiary of the festival’s grants in 2017 and has been volunteering at the event ever since.

Over the years, the organization has received approximately $30,000, which was used for its environmental education programs, including hosting beach cleanups for keiki and beach cleanups for artists who use the collected plastics and trash to convey messages of the dangers of marine debris.

This year, the festival hopes to award $3,000 to the Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund.

At the end of 2020, Lamson said the nonprofit hosted 30 keiki cleanups and four artist cleanups. Going forward, she said the Hawai‘i Wildlife Fund will have to find other grant funding to be able to continue hosting these cleanups.

For the third year, Humanity Hale, a nonprofit dedicated to providing support to at-risk keiki, will be receiving a grant from the festival. It has been awarded $9,000 to date, with the money used for children’s education programs, supplies for art therapy and lunches during the nonprofit’s Saturday programming.

The festival hopes to give Humanity Hale $5,000 this year.

“I love that 100% of the proceeds go back to the community,” said Charis Higginson, founder and executive director of Humanity Hale. “Initially, I thought it was a big fun party, but it’s completely community oriented.”

With no financial help from the state or county, Higginson said the nonprofit relies on the community and private funders to step in to help take care of the keiki. With this likely being the last year to receive a grant from the festival, the nonprofit will have to lean more on private funders and community donations.

The Kona Brewers Festival strives toward zero waste with the help of dozens of volunteers. Since 2008, thousands of pounds of festival discards have been separated and transported to school gardens, local farms and ʻāina-based nonprofits, according to the event website.

“The team has done an excellent job in modeling zero waste,” Lamson said.

All food vendors make everything compostable. Lamson said the event has very few trash bins, none of which are filled with plastic red cups. The event offers reusable mugs as well as bamboo utensils.

“It’s been a unique opportunity for us to do outreach to a new audience,” Lamson said. “The Brew Fest attracts people from around the islands.”

Lamson said she hopes someone will take over the festival for future years.

“We can’t share enough how grateful and honored we are to have been part of it,” Lamson said. “There’s dozens of beneficiaries they’ve helped over the years.”

Higginson will be providing volunteers this year at the zero waste stations at the festival, which offers three separate bins – recycling, compost and trash – for the festival goers. They also will educate people about what kind of waste belongs in each bin.

Higginson said she also will miss working with the people who have put on the festival.

“It’s people who care about our community and coming together,” she said. “What happens to our island affects all of us.”

Festival founder Cameron Healy, now 74, said the core group that has organized the festival “feels like it has served its time — and we don’t have a younger group to pass it on to.”

Jacobson thinks someone will pick up the festival: “It’s a good model.” But she added: “It’s time for it to transition into the next generation.”

For now, Jacobson is ready for the party to get started.

“When people from different backgrounds can gather, it’s a good way for people to realize how vibrant we are together,” she said.

Tickets are still for sale and can be purchased here.