After 18 years of onion-eating fun at the Whaler's Village, the 19th annual Maui Onion Festival Saturday is changing things up a little.

New are an added entertainment and activity stage, an outdoor beer garden, a different approach to one of the event's most popular segment -- the cooking competition.

Instead of consumers, this year contestants are professionals, chef-owners of some of the Islands' best-known restaurants, including Fred De Angelo of Ola at Turtle Bay Resort; David Paul Johnson, former chef-owner of David Paul's Lahaina Grill and David Paul's Diamond Head Grill, returned to Maui after a stint at a private club on the Big Island, who may just have another restaurant project up his sleeve' D.K.Kodama, executive chef and owner of the Sansei restaurant group; James McDonald of Lahaina's award-winning Pacific'O, i'o and the Feast at Lelf; and Russell Siu, executive chef and partner in 3660 on the Rise and Kaka'ako Kitchen.

The five chefs' work will be judged anonymously by a panel of food writers and all will receive prizes of increasing value from fifth to first, including stays at the Kaanapali Beach Resort, golf rounds and numerous other amenities.

The popular and hilarious (but not for the faint of palate) raw onion eating contest will again feature keiki and adultdivisions.

The schedule:

9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Whaler's Village shopping center, Kaanapali, Maui. Free Admission.

Chef demos: 10 and 11 a.m., 1,5 and 6 p.m.

Raw onion eating contest: Keiki, noon; Adults, 4 p.m.

Recipe contest judging, 3 p.m.

Information: 808-667-4567; mauionionfestival.com