The Good Coffee Festival 2026 Programme, Hour by Hour

Four hours. That is the length of the longest single block in the Good Coffee Festival 2026 programme, and it is not a lecture, a cupping or a roasting demo. On Saturday, from 11:00 to 15:00, the Main Stage belongs to the National Latte Art Championship.

That block sets the shape of everything around it. The festival runs from 11 to 13 September on the square in front of NDK, the National Palace of Culture in central Sofia, and entry is free. Two locations carry the whole thing: the Main Stage for talks and competitions, the Brewing Village for the bar. They sit a few steps apart, which is the point. You hear about something, then you walk over and drink it.

The format

The Main Stage holds the lectures, the on-stage roasting, both competitions and the closing concert. The Brewing Village runs on different logic. Each day a rotating set of cafes from Sofia and around the country takes over the bar and brews on professional equipment. Seven cafes across three days, in two-hour blocks.

The overlap is deliberate. On Saturday, while the championship runs on the Main Stage, four bars change hands one after another in the Brewing Village. Stand in one place and you miss the other.

Friday, 11 September

The day opens with geography. At 11:00 Ivan Parnarov of 100% Kofein talks about coffee in southern Bulgaria, a subject that rarely gets a stage even though a share of the country's better cups passes through it.

At 12:00 comes the first on-stage roast: a roaster, a drum, and an audience watching what happens to the bean before it ever reaches a grinder. At 13:00 the geography turns into flavour. "Trip to Coffee Belt" is a cupping with Artezan, twenty cups from different origins on one table and ninety minutes spent crossing the coffee belt without leaving the square. Come with a clean spoon and no fixed opinion.

The afternoon belongs to competitors. At 16:00 La Columbiana and The Farmer open the block with a short intro, and at 16:30 the roasting competition starts.

The day closes at 17:00 with a conversation that steps outside coffee entirely. "Major City Events in Sofia" is a discussion with Irina Dakova, deputy mayor for culture and tourism, Dimitar Petrov of the Sofia Municipal Council, and Anton Penev of the municipal tourism enterprise. The question is why a city needs events like this and what gets in their way.

In the Brewing Village: Samurai Specialty (10:00-12:00) and Sapiens Coffee (13:00-15:00).

Saturday, 12 September

One machine, one pitcher, milk that either behaves or does not, and four hours in which the gap between first and third place is measured in millimetres of symmetry. For a lot of visitors this block alone decides which day they turn up.

Then the pace changes. At 15:30 DABOV poses the question "Not All Specialty Coffees Are the Same" and has half an hour to answer it. At 16:30 Georgi Zhelyazkov talks about water for coffee, the ingredient that makes up roughly 98% of the drink and that almost nobody thinks about until the filter needs changing.

The Brewing Village is at its fullest on Saturday: Dwell Coffee (09:00-11:00), Wholehearted Café (11:00-13:00), PUNKT (13:00-15:00) and Coffee Syndicate (15:00-17:00). The bar opens at 09:00, two hours before the Main Stage.

Sunday, 13 September

Sunday is quieter and more sensory. At 10:00, another on-stage roast. At 11:00 La Columbiana lead a cupping: spoons, cups, silence, then conversation. At 12:00 DABOV gives a second lecture.

The closing is musical. The Case play live from 15:30 to 17:00. In the Brewing Village, Novelli Coffee pours from 11:00 to 13:00.

Practical

The festival is outdoors, on the square in front of NDK, and entry is free. The programme is current as of publication and can still be extended, with same-day changes announced through the Good Coffee Festival channels.

With one hour to spare, take Saturday's championship. With three days, take all of it.

Slow Made City is a media partner of Good Coffee Festival. Main Stage and Brewing Village equipment is provided by Coffee Tech and Slayer, the festival's official technical partner.