Sheffield’s independent coffee scene is getting a festival of its own this autumn, with a week of events planned across the city before a major weekend takeover at Trafalgar Warehouse.
Sip Fest will run from Monday 28 September to Sunday 4 October 2026, bringing together cafés, roasters, baristas, makers, traders and coffee drinkers for a mix of free fringe events and a ticketed Saturday festival.
The new event has been founded by Matt Cottrill of Steam Yard and Corner Store and Neil Midgley of Motore Cafe, with creative direction and illustration from Steam Yard’s Molly Kirk.
Organisers say the idea is to give Sheffield’s growing coffee community a shared platform while encouraging people to explore independent venues across the city.
For the first part of the week, more than 40 coffee shops, cafés, brunch spots, bars, roasteries and other spaces are expected to take part in a free citywide fringe programme.
Details of individual events are still to be announced, but the focus will be on getting people through the doors of Sheffield independents and showing the breadth of the city’s café culture beyond the usual handful of familiar names.
The festival then moves to Trafalgar Warehouse for the weekend.
On Friday 2 October, the venue will host a free industry party open to people working across coffee, hospitality, food, drink, events and Sheffield’s wider independent business community.
The following day, Saturday 3 October, Trafalgar Warehouse will become the main Sip Fest hub for a ticketed public event split across morning and afternoon sessions.
More than 30 stalls are planned, alongside talks, tastings, Coffee School sessions, street food and DJs. There will also be a large-scale latte art competition and what organisers are billing as the UK’s biggest coffee run.
Early bird tickets for the Saturday event are currently priced at £5.
For the organisers, the festival is as much about the people behind Sheffield’s cafés as it is about what ends up in the cup.
“Sheffield has one of the most exciting independent coffee scenes in the country and we want to showcase this to the city and beyond,” said Cottrill.
“Sip Fest is about celebrating the places, people and energy that make Sheffield’s coffee culture what it is. We want it to feel like something people genuinely look forward to every year, with a sense of fun but also something meaningful behind it.”
Coffee has become an increasingly visible part of Sheffield’s independent culture over the past decade, with speciality cafés and roasters spreading well beyond the city centre and into neighbourhoods including Kelham Island, Nether Edge, Crookes and Hillsborough.
Sip Fest is looking to bring some of that activity together for the first time, mixing Sheffield businesses with national coffee brands while keeping the wider fringe rooted in local venues.
The organisers are also pitching the festival beyond committed coffee obsessives. Alongside home brewers and speciality coffee fans, they hope to attract students, freelancers, families and people looking for a daytime social event that does not revolve around alcohol.
Cafés, roasteries, makers, brands, venues and traders are now being invited to take part in both the Trafalgar Warehouse programme and the fringe.
DOES THA KNOW?
Sheffield has developed one of the strongest independent coffee cultures in the country. More than 72% of the city’s coffee shops are independently run, according to a 2026 study, placing Sheffield fifth among UK cities for the strength of its independent scene. The city has 28.7 independent coffee shops for every 100,000 residents, alongside a growing network of local speciality roasters.
Source: UK Coffee Report 2026
Sip Fest runs from 28 September to 4 October 2026. The industry party at Trafalgar Warehouse on 2 October is free, while early bird tickets for the public festival on 3 October cost £5 via sipcoffeefestival.com.
