What's On in Waikoloa, The Weekly Rhythm and Annual Events

The short answer

Waikoloa Beach Resort runs on a steady weekly rhythm, a farmers market, live music and hula some evenings at the marketplaces, plus a handful of annual moments worth planning around: Lei Day celebrations each May, Ironman race week each October, and a whale season that runs the length of winter. Here is the pattern, with a note on where schedules shift and are worth a fresh check before you lock in a plan.

The weekly rhythm

Both marketplaces sit a few minutes from Hali’i Kai and set their own calendars, so treat the pattern below as reliable but not fixed.

Day	What’s on	Where
Tuesday	Farmers market, roughly 9:00am to 2:30pm	Kings’ Shops
Select evenings	Live music, hula on the lawn, fire dancer shows	Queens’ MarketPlace

Evening lineups shift by season and sometimes by the week, so confirm before you build an evening around a specific act or night. Kings’ Shops and Queens’ MarketPlace both post their current schedule on their own sites, and our concierge can tell you what’s on during your stay. For more on both centers, the shops, the koi pond, and the petroglyph field behind Kings’ Shops, see our guide to Kings’ and Queens’ MarketPlace.

Annual anchors

Lei Day (AKA May Day on the mainland) celebrates all things Hawaii with various activities, performances, and markets happening all over the island. Both the Kings’ Shops and Queens’ MarketPlace host great activities and performances.

Ironman race week lands in Kailua-Kona every October, with the 2026 race day set for Saturday, October 10. Waikoloa stays quiet through it, well north of the course, but Queen Kaahumanu Highway, the Queen K, sees closures and heavier traffic that week, worth building into any plans that take you toward Kona.

Whale season is less a single event than a season-long backdrop: humpbacks are off this coast from November through April, with the first arrivals usually showing up in late November and the peak from January through March, filling the horizon with spouts and breaches for anyone looking. Our guide to whale season at Waikoloa covers when to watch and where.

Evenings at Hali’i Kai

The Ocean Club, our oceanfront restaurant at Hali’i Kai, brings live music out onto the lawn on select evenings, dinner, a good cocktail, and a band with the sunset behind them. Check the current schedule when you arrive, since some weeks are livelier than others, and ask us which nights tend to draw a crowd. Restaurant hours and the current menu are on the Ocean Club page, along with the rest of the resort’s dining options. The kitchen closes at 8pm, but the pool stays open until 9pm Wednesday through Sunday from September 1, 2026, so a late swim after the music is an option on those nights.