The Cincinnati Coffee Festival returns to Music Hall this weekend, bringing craft coffee, educational demonstrations, a latte art competition and live music to Over-the-Rhine on Saturday, October 24, and Sunday, October 25. The festival runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. both days in the Music Hall Ballroom at 1241 Elm Street.
Coffee enthusiasts will gather to sample, learn about, buy and celebrate all things coffee, with roasters and vendors offering tastings throughout the ballroom. The educational demonstrations and the latte art competition give the weekend a hands-on program alongside the sampling floor. For home brewers, the demos are a chance to pick up technique from working roasters and baristas, while the competition puts the region’s latte artists in front of a crowd.
Tickets are $21 in advance and are limited by entry time, so attendees pick a window rather than arriving all at once. Proceeds from the festival go to the Ohio River Foundation, tying the weekend’s coffee to river conservation work across the region.
This year’s event will be even more environmentally friendly, with compost and recycling built into the festival operation. Attendees are encouraged to bring their own mug, a small step the festival promotes as part of reducing waste over the two days.
The festival anchors a full fall weekend in Over-the-Rhine. Washington Park, just across Elm Street from Music Hall at 1230 Elm Street, hosts its free Fall Fest the same Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a pumpkin patch, pumpkin decorating, a petting zoo, trackless train rides, live music and library book giveaways — giving families two events within a short walk of each other.
Music Hall itself is one of Cincinnati’s landmark performance halls, home to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Pops and other resident companies. The ballroom setting puts the coffee festival inside a building most Cincinnatians know for concerts, in the heart of Over-the-Rhine’s Washington Park district.
Coffee festival hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on both Saturday and Sunday at the Music Hall Ballroom, 1241 Elm Street in Cincinnati. Advance tickets are $21 and entry is timed, so organizers recommend choosing an entry time before the weekend rather than counting on walk-up availability.
Photo: Ohio Redevelopment Projects – ODSA, CC BY 2.0