Otley Coffee Festival is back
The 2024 Otley Coffee Festival is taking place on Saturday 27th April at Otley Parish Church from 10am until 4pm.
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The biannual event has become a significant addition to both the coffee-lovers’ and Otley calendars.
All the exhibitors are Yorkshire-based, but the 2024 theme is outward-facing: The World in Your Cup. Both the talks programme and the exhibition will be based on that theme, considering how what we drink, eat, and buy can be better for us and the wider world in which we live.
Otley Coffee Culture is organising a great coffee festival in Wharfedale – that’s just half an hour from the centre of Leeds, Bradford and Harrogate.
If you love coffee, or simply want a great day out, our festival with great exhibitors, special offers and events will be for you.
As well as coffee
A bigger creatives exhibition is a response to the popularity of this part of the day in 2022. We have several of our own brilliant Otley-based makers - Chilli Glass and Nina Wright Ceramics will complement the painting and prints of Sarah Hughes and Jeanne-Louise Art and the watercolours of Martha Taylor – whilst from slightly further afield we are thrilled that Sarah Harris and Downtown Drawings will be exhibiting their prints, and that we will be joined by Crafts and Bubbles soaps and natural cosmetics.
Otley Coffee Festival is a not-for-profit organisation. Once again, the main recipient of any surplus monies will be Farmers’ Voice Radio, who will have a stall to allow them to explain the important work they do helping farmers (including coffee farmers) in Africa. The Otley Oxfam shop and Otley 2030 will also have a stall and will receive support from the festival.
Ian Agnew, from the Lorna Young Foundation, which runs Farmers’ Voice Radio, has been grateful for the support from the festival. It is, he said, “A great event, with a lovely, warm feel to it - very relaxed and friendly. The festival team did a fantastic job, and you had a brilliant team of volunteers.”
Ticket Sales
Tickets are now on sale from Otley Courthouse!
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Tickets are available to purchase for £7 from the Courthouse, and online on their website.
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Tickets will also be available on the door for £9.
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Your Otley Coffee Festival ticket will give you:
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Timed access to the festival hub: 23 stands including an art market, curated talks and live music
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Opportunities for free coffee tasting from different coffee roasters
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A festival programme to plan your day
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Children 3 and under are free.
Festival Date and Venue
Otley Coffee Festival will be held on 27th April 2024 from 10am-4pm.
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The Festival hub will be based at All Saints' Parish Church Otley.
What is a Coffee Festival?
Coffee festivals are more and more popular.
London Coffee Festival is one of the world’s largest and Manchester has had a great festival for the last five years and has grown steadily from 400 visitors in its first year to 2,000 in 2018. There are now festivals across much of the country. We think we need one too!
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The festivals are, in the words of one expert, ‘all about the journey from bean to cup’.
At a coffee festival you can enjoy finding out more about coffee and associated products, whatever your level of expertise. At a festival, you would typically be able to taste and compare coffee, watch, and perhaps participate in, latte art, coffee tasting competitions and brewing demonstrations. Coffee brands and merchants would tell you their story.
Otley Coffee Culture Festival will have all this and more.
What is special about Otley Coffee Festival?
Otley has a long tradition of welcoming visitors, especially to the great events we stage every year.
Otley Coffee Culture Festival sits in that tradition and will use venues across the historic town centre to host locals and guests alike for a day focused on the coffee consumer.
We will learn from other coffee festivals, but also intend that our festival will be distinctive: a day long series of events in a range of locations, suitable for both the coffee connoisseur and those just looking for a great day out.
Putting fair trade and the environment at the centre
Within the coffee trade there is great opportunity to do good. The trade is a significant international activity. Responsible coffee businesses can promote fair shares for producers and can support appropriate measures to protect fragile ecosystems. At the Otley festival, we will be working with and showcasing businesses that use their economic muscle to promote good practice.
Celebrating coffee and the local economy
We want to use the festival to promote Otley and Otley businesses. We know, too, that there are great West Yorkshire businesses that ought to be involved. The day will ensure that we do this.