After the devastating Lahaina wildfires, the Hawaii Food & Wine Festival returns to Kaanapali, blending world-class cuisine with heartfelt community resilience.

I stood on the lawn of the Royal Lahaina Resort, taking in a breathtaking stretch of Maui’s Kaanapali coast a short distance from the touristy buzz of Whaler’s Village, and I had to remind myself that a little more than a year earlier, fire had raged through Lahaina, burning homes and businesses to the ground, taking lives, and leaving scores of people with nothing.

In the weeks that followed the disaster, the Royal Lahaina and other Kaanapali hotels shifted their hospitality focus to the individuals and families who had been displaced and traumatized by the devastation. For months, resorts filled their guest rooms with family, friends, staff, and strangers who had no place else to go. It was the embodiment of the aloha spirit.