Aroma Festival 2014

Overview

This post is sponsored by our partners, the Aroma Festival.

For the 17th year in a row, the Aroma Festival will take over The Rocks on Sunday, July 27. Yep, it’s the one day on the Sydney calendar when you can give in to your caffeine addiction without feeling one bean of guilt. In fact, you can think of it as your responsibility to sample as many single origins, blends and house specials as you possibly can.

Between 10am and 5pm, the area will become one enormous coffee-fuelled playground, alive with grinding, whirring, frothing, pouring, filling and sipping. More than 60 stallholders with an emphasis on organic, handmade and Fairtrade goods will converge on First Fleet Park, while at Campbell Cove there’ll be a gathering of Sydney’s favourite food trucks, including Agape Organic, Tsuru and Cantina Mobil. Plus, there’ll be an array of pop-up bars and cafes, artworks and competitions. Highlights include an epic coffee cup sculpture to which you’ll be able to contribute, a bean-to-cup exhibition showing you exactly what your coffee goes through to make it as far as your mouth, and a latte art smackdown judged by pros from the Australasian Specialty Coffee Association (ASCA).

Meanwhile, a seriously impressive live soundtrack will keep your buzzing brain stimulated from the outside, featuring oud virtuoso Joseph Tawadros, powerful bluesman Frank Sultana, hot young songwriter Laura Zarb, Cope Street Parade, Damian Wright, Caitlin Park, Marlin Williams, Leah Flanagan, The Slowdowns, Ollie Brown and All Our Exes Live in Texas.

Even better, this one day of coffee immersion is but the crema on top of a rich month of activities. Check out workshops in cupping and latte art, grab an indulgent 'high coffee' at Baroque Bistro or vote for your most adored brew in the Aroma Cup competition and go in the draw to win $3,000 worth of prizes. For the full schedule, see the Aroma website.