There has been a groundswell of local coffee festivals in the past few years. Milwaukee, Oslo, Dallas, Barcelona, locally-run coffee festivals have been connecting denizens to roasters and cafes within their own city that they may not have even knew existed. Add Charlotte, North Carolina to that list with the inaugural POUR Coffee Festival taking place Saturday, March 3rd.

Created by Undercurrent Coffee’s (and co-creator of the Charlotte Coffee Collective) Diana Mnatsakanyan-Sapp and Marco Beverage Systems’ Matt Dudley, the POUR Coffee Festival is a consumer-facing event whose goal is to “celebrate and elevate specialty coffee culture in the Southeast.” Sponsored by La Marzocco, Marco, Pacific, Ally, and others, the one-day coffeepalooza will feature some of the region’s best roasters including: Pure Intentions, Summit Coffee, Nightflyer Roastworks, Counter Culture, Methodical, and Black & White Coffee Roasters.

But it’s not just all about drinking coffee; attendees can expect to find a handful of educational opportunities at the POUR Coffee Festival. “Brewing demonstrations, mini workshops, and educational discussions” will be taking place throughout the day.

“There’s often a gap between what the public understands about specialty coffee and what industry professionals know, and I think that an event like POUR can help bridge that gap” says Mnatsakanyan-Sapp, “There are so many talented and knowledgeable coffee professionals in our region- I want more people to be learning from them and supporting them.”

All proceeds from POUR will go to the newly-established Southeastern brand of the Women Investing in Northwestern Coffee Champions (WINCC), an organization that “provides tools, equipment, coaching, and funding for marginalized coffee professionals (women, trans people, queer folks, and people of color) who want to compete in coffee championships but lack the resources to do so.”

It all takes place Saturday, March 3rd from 10:00am to 3:00pm at the The Unknown Brewing Company. Tickets for POUR are $10 and can be purchased here. The event has already sold over two-thirds of its tickets and will sell out soon. So if you want to go, you should probably get yours very, very soon.

For more information, visit POUR Coffee Festival’s official website.

Zac Cadwalader is the news editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.

*top image via the POUR Coffee Festival

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