Festival seeks to enhance coffee-community connection

LACONIA — “Coffee brings people together,” Karen Bassett said as she formally unveiled the inaugural New England Coffee Festival on Thursday.

The two-day event, planned for May 20 and 21 in downtown Laconia, is designed to attract coffee professionals and coffee consumers alike to enjoy a variety of indoor and outdoor events.

“This is the next step of the economic revival of Laconia and Lakeport,” Mayor Andrew Hosmer said during a brief announcement ceremony held in the lobby of the Colonial Theatre which was attended by some of the event’s sponsors and representatives of several downtown businesses.

Bassett, along with her husband Reuben, and Ben Bullerwell, are partners in Wayfarer Coffee Roasters which opened in on Main Street in 2015, and last year expanded with a second location in Lakeport.

“Wayfarer is about bringing people together,” Karen Bassett said. “This festival seems like a logical extension of that idea.”

Coffee truly creates community, Bassett believes.

She anticipates “a few thousand” people will come to Laconia for the opportunity to hear lectures by experts talking about coffee culture and the coffee business, view an art exhibit, as well as sample different coffees, coffee products, enjoy offerings from food trucks, and listen to live music.

The first phase of the festival on Friday evening will primarily be an opportunity for networking, Bassett explained.

The main activities will be on Saturday, running from 8 a.m. until 4 or 6 p.m. Some events, such seminars and workshops and the art show will be by paid admission. Others, such as coffee sampling and live music, will be free.

Sixteen businesses and organizations have already signed on as sponsors, including the Belknap Mill, Colonial Theatre, Bank of New Hampshire, and the Lakes Region Chamber. Additional sponsoring opportunities are available, Bassett noted.

The festival has set up a website — newenglandcoffeefestival,com — where people will be able to learn about the festival schedule and as well as to purchase passes to ticketed events.

Bassett said the idea for a festival sprang up in 2020. Program details are still being worked out, she pointed out.

While coffee festivals aimed at coffee producers and coffee shop owners have been occurring for some time, Bassett said the New England Festival will be different from those because it seeks to attract both those in the business as well as coffee consumers.

“It’s our own vision,” she said.