County weighs permit for Falls on Fire Festival after neighbor complaints

The Windward Planning Commission’s 4-1 vote to approve the Falls on Fire Festival permit in Papaikou put a county stamp on one of the Hamakua Coast’s most persistent land-use fights. The decision carried immediate stakes for neighbors north of Hilo: whether the annual gathering could keep bringing camping, amplified sound, traffic and heavy vehicle storage into an agricultural area that residents say has already absorbed too much disruption.

Andrew Tepper, through Teppy Mountain LLC, sought a special use permit for two separate uses on his roughly 1,400-acre property at 27-476 Indian Tree Road. One part covered the four-day Falls on Fire Festival, including camping for up to 500 attendees on a 14-acre portion of the parcel. The other sought approval to store six commercial vehicles on the land, in an area the planning director described as a “heavy equipment rental base yard.”

The festival has operated for years in a gray zone between private land use and public impact. County records tied Tepper to a Notice of Violation and Order, PL-PCV-2023-00567, for an unpermitted event and overnight accommodations. By the time the permit application was filed in September 2024, Tepper had already been fined for prior violations, and county penalties tied to the 2023 and 2024 festivals totaled about $34,000. The county said the 2024 event ran from Nov. 8 to 11 and drew roughly 200 attendees.

Neighbors James McMahon and Lichuan Huang were among the most visible opponents. Written testimony described the area as a quiet farming community and warned of “unwanted traffic” from outsiders unfamiliar with local norms. Other objections said the proposal was incompatible with agricultural zoning and questioned whether the county should approve a use that had already drawn repeated enforcement actions. The case reached the county Board of Appeals as appeal PL-BOA-2024-000113 before returning to the planning commission this spring.

Supporters argued the festival had a place on the Big Island. Harry Holm told commissioners that similar festivals exist elsewhere on island and said the 2024 event was well-run and respectful of the community. Falls on Fire has been described as Burning Man-inspired, with art, live music, workshops, camping and a ceremonial burning of a symbolic effigy.

The approval did not end the controversy so much as shift it to enforcement. The county now faces the harder task of making sure any permit conditions on camping, sound, vehicle storage and crowd size are real, measurable and enforceable in a district where neighbors say the cost of noncompliance has already been borne on the ground.