2015 Hawaii Chocolate Festival

My ONE-​STAR review is specifically for the organizers of the 2015 so-​called «Hawaii Chocolate Festival» and not for the larger «Food and New Products show.» I give the show in general four stars and give five stars to the individual chocolate vendors.
The organization of the Chocolate Festival was a total joke — and it seemed the vendors thought the ridiculous «rules» were complete horse poop as well.
Here’s how it was supposed to work: The Chocolate Festival was being held at the same time as the Food and New Products show. You can buy (A) a ticket to the Food and New Products Show for $ 4 –or– (B) entry to the Chocolate Festival for $ 20, which also includes admittance to the former event. The $ 20 ticket included 10 samples of your choice from a list of about 20 vendors, called a «Passport.»
We arrived early and took time to ask the ticket vendor if the Chocolate Festival was a physically separate event from the larger Food and New Products show — or could we visit the vendors without purchasing the ticket to taste the samples? She said it was physically blocked off from the larger event, so we purchased two tickets for $ 40.
The doors opened 8 minutes late while a long line built up, because a lot of other people arrived early.
As soon as we got inside, we saw that the chocolate area was NOT separate and there was nothing to keep us from speaking with the vendors — our main goal. Moreover, the «samples» at 10 for $ 20 ($ 2 a piece) were a joke! They were just tiny pieces — maybe a quarter of an ounce each. You could buy any of the products for much less than $ 2 per quarter ounce. Other samples included two-​ounce cups of tea or coffee.
Most laughable of all — the «chocolate producers» included not only genuine bean-​to-​bar companies but vendors like Unilocal (no offense, but seriously!?) and a charity to help victims of ASL disease — neither of which have anything to do with producing chocolate. Guess what their chocolate samples were? A tiny piece out of a huge bag of generic mass-​produced candy from Costco! These two vendors were not mentioned on the website, but showed up on the «Chocolate Passport.»
Feeling completely ripped off, we went back to the box office to ask for our money back, purchasing the tickets that were $ 4 each instead of $ 20 each.
We went back inside, and were delighted to find that some of the REAL chocolate producers were totally ignoring the rules and gave us generous free samples anyway! They also seem to think the rules were ridiculous — so there! How can they be expected to let people know about their products if nobody can taste them without getting ripped off by the event organizers?
We enjoyed the rest of the Food and New Products show as usual — the vendors are usually pretty much the same.
I hope that whatever «death by committee» dreamed up the «Chocolate Festival» does a better job next year. It’s great to feature local chocolate producers who are working hard to educate people about artisan chocolate from Hawaii — the only state in the US that can produce cacao. You are frustrating both the customers and vendors with your confusing and useless rules.