Festival «Cà phê Sơn La lần thứ hai năm 2026» (Sơn La Coffee Festival)

   For five days the biggest square in Vietnam's northwest will smell of fresh roast: the province is gathering everyone who grows, roasts and drinks its highland arabica for the second time. You can taste dozens of lots from a single plateau, watch a cherry turn into a cup, and drive up to the slopes where the beans grew.

   This edition runs under the theme «Arabica Sơn La – Vươn tầm thế giới», «Sơn La arabica reaching the world». The trade fair «Cà phê Sơn La – Kết nối giá trị, phát triển bền vững» opens on day one and stays open all five: the organising committee announces around 200 stands across 2,500 sq m. The festival's opening gala falls on the evening of 10 October and goes out live on television, while the last day closes with the ceremony «Cà phê Sơn La – Dấu ấn và khát vọng vươn xa».

   What the organisers have announced so far:

• — exhibition halls with arabica from Sơn La and other provinces, OCOP goods, safe farm produce, tea, travel offers and ornamental plants;
• — the «Arabica Sơn La Master Cup» contest, judged on roasting, brewing and cupping;
• — the «Coffee Farm Experience» programme, which takes you out to the growing areas for the whole run from picking and processing to a properly made cup;
• — the concert «Giai điệu Arabica Sơn La», a photo show «Cà phê Sơn La – Hành trình vươn xa» and a farmers' skills contest;
• — the «Arabica Sơn La» marathon, a workshop on ecological coffee farming and a trade-matching conference.

   The festival is built on two levels. For visitors there are tasting areas, a coffee-art space with installations and objects made from beans, and highland food. For the trade there are workshops, an investment conference and direct access to the province's cooperatives and processors.

   The first edition, held in 2023 under the theme «Arabica, đặc sản Sơn La – Tôn vinh cà phê Việt», drew tens of thousands of visitors by the province's own count, and the festival will now run every two years. The numbers behind it are substantial: the province reports about 33,600 hectares under coffee, 19,951 of them bearing, with the 2026 green-bean harvest forecast at 37,724 tonnes. Specialty coffee covers over 1,100 hectares, nine coffee products carry OCOP certification, and eight organisations hold the rights to the «Cà phê Sơn La» geographical indication. In 2025 the province's coffee exports passed 112 million USD, going mainly to the EU, the United States, North America, the Middle East and ASEAN.

   No admission charge has been announced for the fair or the festival sites, and entry fees for the marathon, the brewing contest and the farm trips have not been published either. The detailed day-by-day schedule is still being finalised.

   The main programme sits on Quảng trường Tây Bắc, the Tây Bắc (Northwest) Square, but part of the festival happens away from it: the «Coffee Farm Experience» trips run out to coffee estates around the province.

   If you have ever wondered how arabica off these northwestern slopes ends up in European roasteries, these five days let you walk that whole route yourself.