Malibu did not have a Chili Cook-Off last year.
If you live here, you do not need that sentence explained. If you do not, here is what it meant. For forty-two years, this was the weekend when the whole town ended up in the same field — the families who have been here since the seventies, the kids running loose between the rides, the people who moved in last spring and were about to find out what kind of place they had chosen. In 2025, the community was recovering from the Palisades Fire, and the Cook-Off was set aside. Malibu spent Labor Day weekend scattered.
This year it comes home. September 4 through 7, 2026, at 23575 Civic Center Way, the 43rd Annual Malibu Chili Cook-Off. I will be there, and I am not going as an agent.
What Malibu Means to Me
My children's grandparents owned several properties in Malibu. We spent long stretches of our years on those grounds — the horses, the light coming off the water in the late afternoon, the walk down to Little Dume when the tide was right. I rode horses here as a child. The friends I grew up with are still Malibu residents, and their families have been here for generations.
I love this town. I have loved it my whole life, from the inside rather than the road, and the last nineteen months have been hard to watch from any distance. So I am not going to write about this weekend as an event listing. I am going to write about it as what it is, which is the first time in two years that Malibu gets to stand together in one place and count itself.
The Details
When: Friday, September 4, 4 to 10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, September 5 and 6, 1 to 10 p.m.; Monday, September 7, 1 to 8 p.m.
Where: 23575 Civic Center Way, Malibu.
What's there: Award-winning chili, live performances on the new Aviator Nation Dreamland Music Stage, carnival rides, a skate contest, and local artists, with the sunset doing what it does here.
Tickets: Advance purchase online only, priced by tier — when a tier sells out, the price goes up. Children five and under are free. Carnival ride passes are sold separately.
Presented by: Aviator Nation, with Kilowatt Events, La Croix, Universal Music Group, and The Malibu Times.
Where the Money Goes, and Why It Matters This Year
One hundred percent of net proceeds go to the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu, funding disaster recovery services, mental health programs, and after-school youth programs.
I want to sit on that for a moment, because it is the part that turns a good weekend into something that actually matters. Nineteen months after a fire is a particular kind of hard. The news trucks are long gone. The casseroles stopped coming a year and a half ago. The families still in rentals are still in rentals, the claims that were denied are still being fought, and the children who watched their houses burn are old enough now to have absorbed all of it quietly.
Mental health support for those kids is not a line item. It is the whole thing. Every ticket bought this weekend goes toward a Malibu child having somewhere to put what happened to them, and toward a family having somewhere to turn while the rebuilding grinds forward.
What Coming Back Actually Says
Recovery is usually measured in permits and payouts, and those numbers in Malibu are still sobering. The city had issued 88 rebuild permits as of early August 2026, against more than 1,400 in Pacific Palisades — not for lack of will, but because Malibu's burned parcels are steep, rocky, and coastal, with elevation and permitting requirements that flat inland lots never face. Roughly half the homes lost here were waterfront. About a third sat on slopes.
But there is a second measure that no spreadsheet holds, and it is the one this weekend takes. A town that can put its arms back around itself is a town that is coming back. The Cook-Off returning says that Malibu still has the institutional muscle to organize, the volunteers to staff it, the businesses to sponsor it, and the neighbors willing to show up in a place where a lot of them lost something. That is not sentiment. That is the actual raw material of a recovery, and it is the thing I would want to know about if I were deciding whether to bet on this town.
I am thrilled to be part of a community that does this. I am honored to help my neighbors get home, and I have missed seeing everyone in one place more than I expected to.
For Anyone Weighing Malibu Right Now
If you are a buyer watching this market, understand what you are looking at: a community with real leverage available to buyers at the moment, and a social fabric that just proved it survived the worst year in its history. The second part is what makes the first part worth acting on. Anyone can read a median price. Very few buyers understand what it means when a town of this size can still fill a field.
If you own here and you are deciding between rebuilding and selling, please do not make that call in isolation. Get your three numbers on one page first — what your lot is worth today, what your insurance will actually pay, and what it will genuinely cost to build on your specific parcel. I am happy to help you assemble that picture, and to introduce you to the coastal consultants, builders, and claim professionals I trust.
And if you are just coming for the chili, come for the chili. That counts too.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is the Malibu Chili Cook-Off 2026? September 4 through 7, 2026, over Labor Day weekend. Friday 4 to 10 p.m., Saturday and Sunday 1 to 10 p.m., Monday 1 to 8 p.m.
Where is the Malibu Chili Cook-Off held? 23575 Civic Center Way in Malibu.
Why was the Malibu Chili Cook-Off cancelled in 2025? It was paused while the community recovered from the January 2025 Palisades Fire. The 2026 event is the first since the fire and the 43rd in the event's history.
Who benefits from the Malibu Chili Cook-Off? One hundred percent of net proceeds go to the Boys & Girls Club of Malibu, supporting disaster recovery services, mental health programs, and after-school youth programs.
Do I need to buy tickets in advance? Yes. Tickets are sold online in advance only and are priced by tier, so the price increases as each tier sells out. Children five and under are admitted free, and carnival ride passes are sold separately.
How is Malibu's fire rebuild progressing? As of early August 2026, the City of Malibu had issued 88 fire rebuild permits, compared with more than 1,400 in Pacific Palisades. Steep coastal terrain, FEMA flood elevation requirements, septic standards, and layered coastal permitting account for much of the difference.
Find Me
I will be at the Cook-Off this weekend. If you see me, say hello — I would rather talk about your family than your property, though I am glad to do both.
Jocelyn Kelley, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties. (310) 963-2524.
About the Author
Jocelyn Kelley is a luxury real estate advisor with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties, licensed since 2007 and ranked in the Chairman's Circle Gold, the top two percent of approximately 50,000 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices agents worldwide. A Pacific Palisades native with lifelong family ties across Malibu, she represents buyers and sellers throughout Malibu, Pacific Palisades, Santa Monica, Topanga, Brentwood, Venice, Marina del Rey, and Mar Vista, with a focus on fire-affected property, land, and rebuild strategy. DRE #01447462. (310) 963-2524.
