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Bristol Coffee Festival founder aims to celebrate city’s coffee community
When the head of coffee at Bristol Loaf realised that our city does not have its own coffee festival, she went about organising one.
The inaugural Bristol Coffee Festival is taking place on multiple floors of the Bristol Beacon foyer on September 9, with founder Joana Vieiralves Wood promising the event will be both about coffee and community.
The festival will feature events including competitions and panel discussions, with sponsorship already secured from businesses such as Extract, Cakesmiths and Oatly.
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Joana, who trained as a social worker in her native Brazil, lives in Lawrence Hill with her husband and their one-year-old son, with a second child due in June.
Before joining the Bristol Loaf, the 40-year-old worked as a barista at Coffee #1 on Welsh Back and Westbury-on-Trym, and the former Boston Tea Party on Whiteladies Road.
Coffee is now an integral part of her professional life but she is organising the festival in her spare time.
“I’m feeling so excited,” Joana told Bristol24/7 while drinking a filter coffee in Small Street Espresso, one of her favourite cafes.
“It’s a bit scary. I’ve never done anything like this before, but I believe the most important thing you need is not experience, it’s initiative.”
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“The idea for having a coffee festival started for me when Bristol Loaf opened our new cafe at the Bristol Beacon,” said Joana. “It’s a great venue and so well set up for a festival.”
Walk into the foyer during the festival and on the ground floor there will be espresso bars, with brew bars and exhibitors on the first floor.
The festival will not just be constrained to the venue, however, with a token as part of the ticket that gives a free coffee in a number of Bristol independent cafes the following day.
“I hope to create a festival that is really welcoming, and I want to do things differently from a lot of other coffee festivals” Joana said.
“It’s not about making money. It’s about coffee and community, discussing important topics and giving power to small roasteries.
“Bristol is one of the main coffee hubs in the UK. It’s so important that we have a coffee festival here.”
For more information about Bristol Coffee Festival and to buy early-bird tickets for £13, visit www.bristolcoffeefestival.co.uk
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read next:
- Roastery and cafe opens in east Bristol
- Coffee Club combines coffee and live music
- What are Bristol’s best cafes?
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