This post shares 5 tips for attending tea festivals–how to prepare, what to bring, and an important thing to plan to do during festivals.
What Is a Tea Festival?
Tea festivals are events open to the public (often requiring attendees to purchase tickets) that feature vendors and artisans (sometimes even producers) who sell tea, teaware, accessories, and related merchandise. They also usually sell tea sweets or other food items.
Additionally, the festivals usually feature tea professionals who offer workshops on topics that range from Tea 101 to specific types of tea, tea and meditation, cooking, history and culture, and so on. They are a great opportunity for tea lovers to try new tea, see teaware, learn, and connect with others.
The USA features a number of tea festivals–including, but not limited to: Chicago Tea Festival, Midwest Tea Festival, Northwest Tea Festival, Pennsylvania Tea Festival, TeaFestPDX, etc. Other countries have tea festivals, too.
(Photo: Me at Tea Fest PDX in July 2022. This festival was held mostly outside in Portland, Oregon. I’ve written before about some of my delightful experiences with tea in Portland in this post, “Tea in the Canyon.”)
Overview of the 5 Tips
After returning from Canada and attending the wonderful Toronto Tea Festival, I reflected on tips for attending tea festivals. Here, I’ve gathered a few–including some from tea friends!
My 5 tips are:
- Bring empty, refillable bags for tea
- Bring a backpack or tote
- Bring a water bottle and a few napkins
- Eat before you attend
- Plan breaks
(In this Toronto Tea Festival Photo: Marco from Steap’d, me–Traci from Tea Infusiast, Taniya from YogaTeaPoetry, and Mona from Chai Affairs.)