Drive south from Keauhou on a July evening and the traffic thins about the time you hit the coffee belt. The tourists are behind you on Ali'i Drive. The resort dinners are behind you on the Kohala Coast. What's ahead, along the twelve miles of Māmalahoa Highway between Honalo and Hōnaunau, is a summer program that most West Hawai'i residents outside South Kona don't even know is running: a 94-year-old community theatre in mid-season, a Sunday market that outdraws anything closer to town, and a fruit calendar that peaks the same weekend the mainland gets its worst mangoes of the year. If you live along this stretch, the drive to the best of it is measured in minutes.
That is the argument of this post. South Kona in July and August is not a quiet shoulder waiting for coffee harvest. It is the one time of year the mauka corridor runs as its own cultural district, and residents here have the shortest walk to the door.
The Theatre Is The Anchor, Not The Coffee
The Aloha Theatre has been on Māmalahoa Highway in Kainaliu
