New England Coffee Festival to bring buzz downtown

LACONIA — When it came to organizing a coffee festival in downtown Laconia, coffee was the easy part.

The New England Coffee Festival is an effort by Wayfarer Coffee Roasters co-owner Karen Bassett and her team to re-imagine the typical coffee expo into an experience that creates bonds between local coffee lovers and industry experts, builds connections to the area within the coffee industry and continues the trend of growth in downtown Laconia. It will take place on Main Street, Canal Street, and at the Belknap Mill on the evening of Friday, May 20 and all day Saturday, May 21.

The motto of the festival is “making specialty coffee accessible to everyone.” Its goal is to reach both inward into the coffee industry— to model how coffee shops can energize and inspire the small business communities around them— as well as outward into the Laconia area— to make the world of specialty coffee approachable and familiar to residents. 

“This event is come as you are, where you are in your coffee journey,” said Emeran Langmaid, one of the participating industry experts and owner of A&E Coffee & Tea located in Manchester and Amherst. “Coffee has a bad reputation of being snobby, and this event is refreshing in how it will blend customer and industry outreach and focus on camaraderie and learning.” 

José René Martínez, who owns J.René Coffee Roasters and Victus Coffee in West Hartford, Connecticut, and who will host a lecture and serve on a panel about diversity in the coffee community, emphasized that bringing together a local community and a global industry around a regional coffee culture made the event unique. 

“We feel like community is the point,” Bassett said. Though the festival is, at its core, focused on specialty coffee, “we want to highlight what the region has to offer and show off how the city has grown.”

The Wayfarer team started planning this festival in 2019, anticipating it would take place in the spring of 2020. Because of the pandemic, that didn’t happen. Bassett is glad. 

“This is the better year,” she said. “With three new performance venues and so many new restaurants, now is such a good time for people to come here.” 

The event will feature both indoor and outdoor components, with all outdoor activities being open to the public and all indoor programming, located in the Belknap Mill and at the Colonial Theater, requiring a ticket. Unticketed events include local food trucks, live music brought by the New Hampshire Music Collective, an arts walk featuring local artists, and other attractions outdoors at the Belknap Mill. Businesses downtown have been encouraged to, as Bassett described, “spill out into the street.” 

“I think it’s awesome how the event is bringing everyone together and making Laconia a destination for small businesses,” said Kristin Bastille, owner and operator of Defiant Records and Craft Beer on Main Street. Defiant will host a mixer, included in the two day pass, on Friday night and also have live music and beer tents outdoors open to the public throughout the festival. Trillium Farm to Table on Canal Street will feature a coffee-themed menu item and a coffee-flavor beer to commemorate the festival.

In addition, the parking lot at Veterans Square will host an Outdoor Adventure Experience with local organizations and businesses such as Prescott Farm, the WOW Trail, Highland Mountain Bike Park, Silver Sands Marina, and the New Hampshire Rail Trail Coalition. 

Inside the Belknap Mill, included on the “expo only” ticket, each floor will feature a different offering, including a a vendor expo filled to the brim with swag and tastings, tours of the mill and pop-up café hosted by milk sponsors Contoocook Creamery and Chobani showcasing local coffee roasters. Saturday afternoon the mill will also host the latte art showdown, where baristas will put their milk-pouring finesse and flair to the test. 

Inside the Colonial Theatre, and available via the one or two day passes, are more educational experiences such as panel discussions, workshops taught by industry experts, and a speaker series. A full schedule of events and ticket options can be found at newenglandcoffeefestival.com.

Langmaid will host one of these workshops, entitled “Jelly Beans and Coffee: a sensory experience,” where she will use the concentrated flavors of jelly beans to demonstrate how everyday foods can bring out the different flavors in coffee. 

Like Wayfarer itself, Bassett hopes that the festival will serve as a gateway to the downtown community, rather than only a destination. The event will bring professionals from the specialty coffee industry all over New England to Laconia and allow local businesses of all types to showcase the growth they have brought to the area.

“I like when downtown businesses pull together,” said John Bethell, co-owner of Piedmont Print and Frame, which will bring its vintage proof press onto Canal Street and allow the public to print their own colorful festival poster. “If everyone can do something coffee-related to showcase their business, all the better.”

From major companies to small shops, Bassett said the dozens of vendors and sponsors have impressed her with how invested they are in the festival. That collaboration will make the event feel “intentional, professional, elevated, and an embodiment of the growing new energy downtown,” Bassett said. “It’s a win for everyone.”