It might be the coffee that gets the crowds to the Columbus Coffee Festival year after year The acoustic music, historic buildings, garden tea parties, unruly goats, and apple sugar donuts make it a full weekend of fall fun. Opportunities to participate in screen print making, painting, and learning about ceramics are brought to the Franklin County Fair Grounds during the festival. Why not learn how to crochet while sipping coffee? Sign up for a class!

Between coffee samples in the signature festival coffee mug, the fair grounds are brought to life by local art, live performances, and plants grown from cuttings. The art doesn’t have to be coffee-themed, but isn’t it extra special when it is? Consider the Emotional Support Coffee — “When faced with the hot water of life the Coffee Bean transforms its surroundings into something wonderful. You to can do hard things.”

Every fall, for the last 10 years, the Columbus Coffee Festival has brought coffee lovers together for a weekend of celebration. For 2025, the Franklin County Fairgrounds welcomed the coffee crowd.

The festival temporarily moved to the fair grounds while the Ohio History Connection’s Ohio Village undergoes “significant infrastructure upgrades.” The festival is expected to return to the village, opened in 1974, in years to come. “The 8.5-acre site will evolve from a living history museum into a hub for education, leisure, and accessibility. Enhancements include new amenities, interpretive experiences, and infrastructure improvements.”

Pro tip: By my 2nd or 3rd coffee festival I learned that the best way to avoid long lines when gates open at 9:00 am is to head straight to the back of the festival, to visit the coffee vendors in reverse.

Under the shade of mature trees you can visit a museum of Franklin County artifacts, tour a one-room school house, and peek into a cabin reconstructed on-site from a handful of historic buildings. There’s a racetrack back there too, part of the fairgrounds, where horses compete in harness races.

Victorian-style picnic seating is provided by The Picnic Dairies, a pop-up service that will bring a picnic-style teatime to you, around Columbus! It’s flowery and romantic, with books of poetry to entertain. Cushy pillows provide seating and decorative greenery compliments whatever park-like setting or cityscape you choose. So pretty!

Coffee roasters of all types are on site, with creative branding, graphics, and merch! Curly Dog Coffee has coffee bearing doggie-inspired names. Think “Tail Wagger,” “The Zoomies,” “Sit and Stay,” and “Squirrel Chaser.” I’m a card-carrying dog person who has cats as fur babies because I love to travel. It’s a bit easier on the pet sitters to check in on cats every 2 days than to check on dogs multiple times a day…

… but the cats won’t stand for us playing favorites – well, unless it’s in their favor! (In truth I’m an animal person and love them all! My childhood dream was to become a veterinarian, before I realized that words were more my strength than scientific practices.). Cats make their superiority known on Curly Dog Coffee attire, as you’ll see below – “drink coffee. pet cats.” Always!

Over the years, the Coffee Festival it has grown in the number of coffee roasters, but even more in the entertainment, vendors, food trucks, and other distractions. These keep visitors at the festival well beyond their capacity to continue drinking another cup of coffee. A ticket to the festival provides access to an event worth lingering at.

Overzealous coffee enthusiasts might want to spend all of their time hopping from one tasting to the next. But even the most enthusiastic coffee drinker needs a break, if only to keep their heart from beating out of their chests. There are so many stimulants in the drink. Low-caffeine mushroom coffees and caffeine-free teas are on offer, but can only entertain a true ‘javaphile’ for so long. So, the art and live entertainment provide moments of pause. Festival goers linger over each coffee roaster’s samples.

If you’re looking for a whimsical art experience, Art by Kyoko is one of the artists this year. Her work is inspired by themes of the outdoors, adventure, and wildlife. Houseplants and pets are featured too, bringing these themes into our everyday environments and day-to-day lives. Kyoko’s work is joyful and inquisitive – her subjects are too. She offers custom pet drawings. I may need to look into these, for my three fur babies.

Matcha drinks are handed out, in exchange for social media recognition. Folks who like coffee and art must also be drawn to plants because a vendor offers simple cuttings for you to propagate, while others put in the front-end work of gardening, allowing you to walk away with a stable, mature plant. One coffee roaster is wearing a colorful t-shirt that turns a pile of cats into a fall tree. I ask permission to snag a photo.

A few booths over, a young artist’s colorful palette brings levity to his art. Orange, yellow, and red converge into a warm autumn display for Collin Williams. I’m sold!

Hi! I’m Collin. “I’m an independent graphic designer based in Columbus, Ohio.
I love working with clients big & small to bring colorful warmth
to branding, marketing, and illustration projects.

Otherwise, I’m here— making collections of illustrated home goods to sell online
& at in-person events across Ohio. I love giving talks & classes, and
I’m always sharing content behind the ins & outs of running a creative business.

~ Collin Williams

It’s a treat to spend the morning around a ‘tribe’ of coffee lovers. You can make it an afternoon adventure if you’re able to drink coffee after 12 noon; I typically am unable to do that, if I want to sleep at night. But an occasional seasonal brew in my French press is okay. For the Thanksgiving holiday I indulge. There’s no work on Friday so I’ll be opting outside and spending time in one of our parks, coffee in hand.

Join me on my next adventure,

~ Kat

Related Links:

Columbus Coffee Festival (2025): https://columbuscoffeefest.com/

Columbus Coffee Festival on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ColumbusCoffeeFestival

The Picnic Diaries: https://thepicnicdiaries.com/

Curly Dog Coffee: https://www.curlydogcoffee.com/

Art By Kyoko: https://artbykyoko.com/

Collin Williams: https://collinmakesmagic.com/