About us
Who runs Coffee Festival, what it has been since 2014, and where the European chapter goes next.
Since 2014
One hall, one weekend, everyone who touches a coffee bean.
Coffee Festival was founded in İstanbul by Dream Sales Machine and grew into a platform where producers, roasters, brands, baristas and audiences meet in the same room. In 2027 that platform opens a European chapter in Dortmund.
- Founded
- İstanbul
- Cities so far
- İstanbul, Ankara
- Next
- Dortmund opens Europe
- Produced by
- Content Agency UG
Founder
Founded in İstanbul, by Dream Sales Machine.
Coffee Festival was founded in İstanbul in 2014 by Dream Sales Machine, and the festival has run under that name in Türkiye ever since. Coffee Festival Europe is the European chapter of the same festival, produced by Content Agency UG.
What the format holds on to
Taste before talk
Every stand pours, brews or hands something over. Brochures are not an exhibit.
Origin in the room
Floor space and pricing are held so producers can attend rather than be described.
One price list
Same rates, same deadlines, for the smallest roastery and the largest brand.
Chronicle
Since 2014, year by year
2014
Founded in İstanbul
Dream Sales Machine stages the first Coffee Festival. An idea for one weekend becomes an event that returns every year.
2016
A second location
Ankara shows the format does not depend on İstanbul.
2022
A third location
İzmir joins. Three cities, one edition, the same handwriting.
2024
Tenth edition
116,000 visitors across the previous year's three festivals, 320 brands. İstanbul alone reaches 41,388 visitors and 170 brands.
2027
Europe
Coffee Festival Europe is produced by Content Agency UG. Dortmund opens the European chapter.
Where we stand
Four sentences we hold to
01
We do not build a trade fair
A trade fair exhibits; a festival lets people take part. Our ground has no trade day and no public day — it has four days on which both see the same thing.
02
We curate the ground
Whoever exhibits, pours. Brochures alone do not earn a stand. That is the only reason 170 brands can stand side by side without it turning arbitrary.
03
We count honestly
Visitors are counted at the gate and published afterwards, not estimated in advance. What has not happened gets no number.
04
We are going to Europe
In 2027 Dortmund opens the European chapter. What stands there will stand here the moment it is signed — and not a day earlier.
In figures
Ten years, four cities, one principle
The festival was not invented as a format and then filled — it grew the other way round. These four values say more about its character than any self-description.
2014
First festival
In İstanbul, with a handful of roasteries on a floor that would not be enough today.
4
Locations in Türkiye
İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and, since 2024, Antalya.
116.000
Visitors in 2023
Counted across three festivals of one year.
320
Brands in 2023
From the two-person operation to the international brand.
What we hold to
The floor is allocated on coffee, not on budget
The most expensive sentence in this project. It means a two-person operation with excellent sourcing stands next to a brand with ten times the turnover — and both get the same counter. It costs us money and it is the reason the festival looks the way it does.
Five ways in
Pick the door you need.
The festival itself, the people behind it, everything press needs, the brand assets, and the archive of what already happened.
The Festival
What the format actually is, and the three rules it has never broken.
Team
The people who build it, and the roles we are still hiring for.
Press
Contact, boilerplate, accreditation and what you may publish without asking.
Media
Logos, colours, typography and the rules for using them.
Recap
The archive: every edition since 2014, in pictures.