Jiading’s coffee culture festival to open at open-air mall on Friday

Jiading has seen a number of local brands expand their operations.

— Xu Chenyi

Staff Reporters

The second Jiading coffee culture festi-val will open on April 28 at Xiyun Lou, an open-air riverfront pedestrian mall in the suburban district.

It will run through May 3 as part of the 2023 Jiading Shopping Festival. With the theme of “Spring Coffee | Gather To-gether,” the festival aims to gather more players from the coffee industry chain and provide a platform to boost coopera-tion while spreading the culture of coffee among residents and visitors.

“The first coffee culture festival last year allowed coffee brands to become more well-known among the general pub-lic,” said Wang Ting, a marketing manager at Xiyun Lou. “This year’s event will be more like a ‘reunion’ with old friends as well as a good opportunity to meet new friends.”

“We will join forces with more entities and organize more activities to improve communication among industry play-ers and, hopefully, consolidate Jiading’s coffee industry’s overall strength,” she added.

Jiading has seen a number of local brands, such as Yongpu, MQ, Aluma and Kabo, expand their operations in recent years, earning the district a reputation as a magnet for coffee startups and trading firms.

To provide a more diverse experience for visitors, the second coffee culture festival will include more cross-industry elements, such as “coffee+intangible cultural heri-tage,” “coffee+camping,” “coffee+cultural and creative products,” “coffee+market” and “coffee+technology.”

According to the organizer, the six-day event will also include interactive activities, such as coffee grounds sachet making, creative latte art and pastry bak-ing, as well as themed lectures.