What is a Tea Festival?

Tea festivals are events open to the public (often requiring visitors to purchase tickets). These events 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. (In nearby photo: Helen of Secret Teatime from the 2024 Toronto Tea Festival.)

Tea festivals are geared toward the tea-loving public, not tea professionals or those in related industries. The World Tea Expo, for example, caters mainly to professionals.

The definition of tea festivals that I use includes events that have multiple tea vendors. For example, True Honey Teas holds events. They have multiple other kinds of vendors, but only one tea vendor (them). So, their events are not listed below. No judgement on the value of the events, only the type!

In addition to multiple tea vendors, tea festivals usually feature tea professionals and educators who offer workshops on a range of tea-related topics. For example, I presented a workshop at the 2025 Toronto Tea Festival. (Photo by Taniya Gupta)

2026 Tea Festivals by Date

January 2026

• January 10: Tea Festival (Richmond Hill Public Library; ON, Canada)
• January 31: Amsterdam Tea Festival (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
• January 31 – February 1: Toronto Tea Festival (Toronto, Canada)
• January 31 – February 1: Cha Dao Tea Festival (Kyiv, Ukraine)

February 2026

• February 21-22: Prague Tea Fest (Prague, Czech Republic)

March 2026

• March 14-15: Tea Culture Festival (Helsinki, Finland)
• March 22: Raleigh Tea Festival (Raleigh, North Carolina)
• March 23: Dresden Tea Festival (Dresden, Germany)
• March 28, 2026: Oz Tea Fest (Melbourne, Australia)

April 2026

• April 11: Cascadia Tea Festival (Everett, Washington, USA)
• April 11-12: Chicago Tea Festival (Chicago, Illinois, USA)
• April 17-19: Helsinki Coffee and Tea Festival (Helsinki, Finland)

May 2026

• May 1-5: Cha Do Festival ( Avatar Village, in a reserved forest 55 km from Kyiv, Ukraine)
• May 2: Milton Tea Fest (Milton, Canada)
• May 2-3: San Francisco International Tea Festival (San Francisco, California, USA)
• May 16: Denton Tea Festival (Denton, Texas, USA)
• May 16-17: Tea & Gourmet Festival (Toronto, Canada)
• May 17: Virtual Cascadia Tea Festival (online)
• May 23: Garden Tea Festival (Vancouver, Canada)
• May 24-25: Fête du thé (Rennes, France)
• May 31: Eugene Tea Festival (Eugene, Oregon, USA)
• May (exact date still TBA as 4/25) Northern Virginia Tea Festival (Reston, Virginia, USA)

June 2026

• June 13-14: NEVADA Tea Festival (Carson City, Nevada, USA)
• June 13-14: Paris Tea Festival (Paris, France)
• June 20-21: San Jose Tea Festival (San Jose, California, USA)
• June 27: Tea Fest PDX (Portland, Oregon, USA)

July 2026

• July 4: Tea Summer Fest (Berlin, Germany)

August 2026

• August (exact date TBA): Čajomír Fest (Czech Republic)
• August 1: Canada Bubble Tea Festival (British Columbia, Canada)
• August 15: Huntsville Tea Festival (Huntsville, Alabama, USA)
• August 22: Northeast Tea Festival (Watertown, Massachusetts, USA)

September 2026

• September 9: Dungog Tea Party (Dungog, Australia)
• September 18-19: Pennsylvania Tea Festival (Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, USA)
• September 26: Ohio Tea Fest (Newark, Ohio, USA)
• September 26-27: Northwest Tea Festival (Seattle, Washington, USA)

October 2026

• October 3: Victoria Tea Festival (British Columbia, Canada)
• October 17-18: Vilnius Tea Festival (Vilnius, Lithuania)

November 2026

• November 1: Nihoncha Matsuri [Japanese Tea Festival] (Toronto, Canada)

2026 Tea Festivals by Country

Virtual (without borders)

• Virtual Cascadia Tea Festival (May 17)
• TeaFestPDX is running occasional virtual events, in addition to their in-person festival listed on this page. To find out more, visit their webage, scroll to the bottom, and join their mailing list.

Australia

• Melbourne, Australia: Oz Tea Fest (March 28)
• Dungog, Australia: Dungog Tea Party (September 9)

Canada

British Columbia

• Burnaby: Canada Bubble Tea Festival (August 1)
• Vancouver: Garden Tea Festival (May 23) Link forthcoming
• Victoria: Victoria Tea Festival (October 3)

Ontario

• Milton, Ontario: Milton Tea Fest (May 2)
• Richmond Hill, Ontario: Tea Festival (January 10)
• Toronto, Ontario: Toronto Tea Festival (January 31 – February 1)
• Toronto, Ontario: Tea & Gourmet Festival (May 16-17)
• Toronto, Ontario: Nihoncha Matsuri [Japanese Tea Festival] (Nov 1)

Czech Republic

• Exact location?: Čajomír Fest (August date TBA)
• Prague: Prague Tea Fest (February 21-22)

Finland

• Helsinki: Tea Culture Festival/Teekulttuurifestivaali (March 14-15)
• Helsinki: Helsinki Coffee and Tea Festival (April 17-19)

France

• Paris: Paris Tea Festival (June 13-14)
• Rennes: Fête du thé (May 24-25)

Germany

• Berlin: Tea Summer Fest (July 4)
• Dresden: Dresden Tea Festival (March 23)

Lithuania

• Vilnius: Vilnius Tea Festival (October 17-18)

Netherlands

• Amsterdam: Amsterdam Tea Festival (January 31)

Ukraine

• Avatar Village (in a reserved forest 55 km from Kyiv): Cha Do Festival (May 1-5)
• Kyiv: Cha Dao Tea Festival (January 31 – February 1)

USA

Alabama

• Huntsville: Huntsville Tea Festival (August 15)

California

• San Francisco: San Francisco International Tea Festival (May 2-3)
• San Jose: San Jose Tea Festival (June 20-21)

Illinois

• Chicago: Chicago Tea Festival (April 11-12)

Massachusetts

• Watertown: Northeast Tea Festival (August 22)

Nevada

• Carson City: NEVADA Tea Festival (June 13-14)

North Carolina

• Raleigh: Raleigh Tea Festival (March 22)

Ohio

• Newark: Ohio Tea Fest (September 26)

Oregon

• Eugene: Eugene Tea Festival (May 31)
• Portland: Tea Fest PDX (June 27)

Pennsylvania

• Mechanicsburg: Pennsylvania Tea Festival (September 18-19)

Texas

• Denton: Denton Tea Festival (May 16)

Virginia

• Reston: Northern Virginia Tea Festival (May TBA)

Washington

• Everett: Cascadia Tea Festival (April 11)
• Seattle: Northwest Tea Festival (September 26-27)

Tips and Missing Info?

Check out my post on 5 Tips for Attending Tea Festivals? Those tips really enhanced my experience at tea festivals. And, readers have shared other tips in the comments there!

If I’ve missed any 2026 tea festivals, or you’ve seen an update that I haven’t included yet, please let me know. You can reach out to me via the comments feature at the bottom of this post. I’ll be updating this list and would be grateful for any new information.

Want to stay in touch? Sign up for my free, monthly newsletter for tea lovers, Tea Infusiast News!

The post 2026 Tea Festivals appeared first on Tea Infusiast.

I also ruled out all the tea events (in person and online) that I ran, even though I found them deeply meaningful.

Top Tea Experiences of 2024

I’m sharing these favorites of the year in alphabetical order by how I’ve named the experiences. It was too hard to rank them!

Being Tea with Plush

Being Tea’s Sooz Hammond runs some wonderful online events.

This year was my second time attending their Being Tea with Plush event. Being Tea invited attendees to bring a plush friend (or even a special blanket or other cozy item) to the online tea session. We steeped and sipped tea, pondered topics related to softness and vulnerability, and chatted in small groups. We were able to share the story of our plush friend and hear others’ stories, too. It was like a big hug in communiTEA. So fun and uplifting! You can learn more about Being Tea‘s offerings here. [Photo of plushies having tea is courtesy of Sooz Hammond.]

Iced Matcha Libation at Kettl with My Daughter

Another top tea experience of 2024 was at Kettl, seated outside their tiny Manhattan location. I wanted to label this subheading: “Iced Matcha Libation with My Daughter on a Brutally Hot Day.” The title was too long. But the “brutally hot day” was definitely part of the reason this experience was so memorable!

It was a really hot and humid August day in New York City. My daughter and I were in the very hot subway stations, then the freezing trains, then back out onto the broiling streets. You know how city streets radiate heat in August? Yeah. UGH.

Arriving to our destination, we sat outside the tiny Kettl location in the Bowery. It was one of the last days they were offering their Peach Matcha and Shiso Soda.

It was SO delicious, and cold, and such a pleasure to sit and sip this iced tea together on a very hot summer’s day. Sadly, we didn’t get of a photo of us together. But, we bonded over delicious iced tea! (Credit for this photo of me goes to my daughter, C. Levy.)

Also, this was the first time we tried Kettl’s delicious Houjicha Chocolate bar. Sooo good! You can read more about this chocolate and other tea-infused chocolates I love here.

Té Company Seasonal Tasting Workshop

Té Company runs some wonderful tasting events. In 2024, I had a number of memorable tea experiences at this NYC teahouse. I’ll highlight one here. I attended a small seasonal tasting workshop. They served us delicious iced tea when we arrived. Then, we had several rounds of hot teas. The workshop was led by one of the Té employees. It was beautifully done tea-tableside, with short video clips, photos, and interesting information.

We were invited to taste and contemplate the teas before learning what they were. Té even included several poems and invited us to match each tea with a poem. Our group had fun conversations doing these pairings.

Té makes delicious snacks and desserts. They served us some of their lovely food during this event. I was focused on the experience and didn’t get photos of the actual tasting, so I’ve included a photo from another visit to Té.

Tea at the Musée D’Orsay

I had to think about how I could justify including this tea experience. The taste of the actual tea I had at the Restaurant Musée D’Orsay was not memorable; however, the food was very good. More importantly, the pleasure of having tea at this extraordinarily beautiful location was deeply memorable. Photos can’t do this place justice. The companionship of tea while I soaked in the art and beauty of this “restaurant behind the clock” at the museum in Paris made this one of my top tea experiences of 2024.

Tea with a Buddhist Sister

At a weekend mindfulness retreat led by monks from the Blue Cliff Monastery, I enjoyed an absolutely magical experience over tea. I worked up the nerve to approach one of the Buddhist monastics, Sister Spiritual Discernment. We started talking about her personal tea practice–which begins at 5 am–and the formal, ceremonial teas that are rarer.

I was surprised and delighted when she spontaneously asked me if I would like to have tea with her.

We walked to the edge of the designated eating space. She filled her thermos with hot water from the nearby dispenser. And, we sat together on the floor. She pulled out her teapot and a teacup, and I pulled out my teacup. We share some beautiful steeps of a Vietnamese green tea she brought.

I share more about this experience in this blog post.

Toronto Tea Festival

Here’s the last top tea experience of 2024 that I will share. I was lucky enough to attend the Toronto Tea Festival for the first time. Seeing friends, making new friends, attending workshops, tasting tea: it was all wonderful! I bought lots of delicious tea and some beautiful new teaware. The energy and tea vibes were superb! [In this photo: Helen of Secret Tea Time, at the 2024 Toronto Tea Festival, in front of her beautiful handmade teaware.]

I’m planning to attend the Toronto Tea Festival again in 2025! Please say “hello” if you recognize me there.

Your 2024 Memories and a 2025 Suggestion

Tea festivals are great fun! I highly recommend attending one if you can. I’ve even made it easier for tea lovers like us by compiling an ever-growing list of 2025 tea festivals in the USA, Canada, Europe, and Japan. (Also, I’m looking to add to these areas of the world.) I share charts of the festivals organized by date and location.

While looking forward, can we take a pause to look back? What were your favorite tea experiences in 2024? I’d love you to share in the comments!

The post My Top Tea Experiences of 2024 appeared first on Tea Infusiast.

What is a Tea Festival?

Tea festivals are wonderful opportunities to connect with all things tea and other tea lovers.

As I wrote in “5 Tips for Attending Tea Festivals“:

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.

Besides being open to the public, tea festivals are geared toward the tea-loving public, not tea professionals or those in related industries. That said, tea festivals usually feature tea professionals who offer workshops on a range of tea-related topics.

If you haven’t attended one before, or if you are looking to attend more, I’ve got you, Tea Friend! To help us out, I’ve compiled two charts of all the tea festivals I could find. I organize the festivals in two charts. The first chart is organized by date; the second chart is organized by country. I also include a section below the charts, on whether tea festivals offer hybrid, online, or other off-site opportunities for folks who can’t attend in person.

I hope my research makes it easier for you to find a tea festival (or two!) to attend in 2025. Who knows? Maybe we’ll even cross paths at one!

2025 Tea Festivals

Some festivals have yet to release their 2025 dates. So, if you see a date that is only a month and a year with an “*” behind it, that means the festival was held in that month in 2024 but they haven’t released the 2025 date yet.

I’ll be updating these charts as information comes out. In other words, definitely check back here! And, if you see an update that I haven’t included yet, please let me know.

Tea Festivals by Date

Photo from 2024 Eugene Tea Festival taken by Blake Robertshaw and kindly provided by Eugene Tea Festival organizer. Photographer’s Instagram: @blakerobertshawphoto

Tea Festivals by Country

Reminder: A date that is only a month and a year with an “*” behind it means the festival was held in that month in 2024. But, they have not released the 2025 date yet. I’ll keep updating this chart as new information is released.

Removed from the 2025 list: Nevada Tea Festival, since it is now showing a June 2026 date instead of an autumn 2025 date.

Accessible and Online Options

In 2024, a few festivals started to include online, inclusive access options! Or, they have worked to provide other ways folks who can’t attend in person can have a tea experience. For example, a tea box of tea from vendors at the festival. Thus, even if you are far or can’t attend for other reasons, it’s worth checking out the possibilities. Some festivals are starting to offer ways to plug in from home. As this information is released for 2025, I’ll update that here.

Offering Accessible/Online Options

Among tea festivals for 2025, so far the following tea festivals have reported inclusive, online offerings.

Cascadia Tea Festival reported that they were planning to offer hybrid or online sessions as part of their 2025 offerings. Although details were not shared before the festival, they have reached out to say they’ll start organizing the online event. No updates as of 6/19/25.

European Tea Culture Symposium 2025 (not a tea festival) is online on July 3, 2025.

Tea Fest PDX put together a tea-in-a-box inclusive festival called TeaFestPDBoX. This offering is in addition to their in-person festival in Portland on June 28, 2025. Various teas and other merch–including a some “Tea Mindful Cards” created by me–will be sent to folks who buy the box. Recipients will also be invited to a live, online tasting component on Sunday, July 20, 2025. Update 6/19/25: The Tea Fest PDX box went live. Despite offering 50% more boxes than last year, they sold out in less than a day! I hope other tea festivals take note. There’s a great demand for accessible, online options for folks who can’t travel to tea festivals in person.

Not Offering Online Options

Festivals that report they were not offering hybrid or online sessions or other off-site tea experiences for their 2025 tea festival:

• Toronto Tea Festival (February 2025)
• Prague Tea Festival (February 2025)
• Chicago Tea Festival (April 2025)
• Warsaw Tea Festival (May 2025)

Festivals That Are In Limbo

The Heartland Coffee, Tea, and Chocolate Festival–last held in October 2024 in Kansas City, Missouri–is now in the hands of new organizers. It’s not clear when the next event will take place.

Tips and Missing Info?

Did you catch my previous post on 5 Tips for Attending Tea Festivals? Those tips really enhanced my experience at tea festivals. I heartily recommend checking them out.

If I’ve missed any 2025 festivals, or you’ve seen an update that I haven’t included yet, please let me know. You can reach out to me via the comments feature at the bottom of this post. I’ll be updating this list and would be grateful for any new information.

Subscribe to My Free Newsletter

Did you know that I offer online and in-person events and have a monthly newsletter, Tea Infusiast News?

My monthly newsletter is another way to help tea lovers connect with and through tea. It’s free, full of helpful information, and gives subscribers advance notice about events and opportunities. I sometimes also offer discounts and giveaways. You can unsubscribe at any time.

The post 2025 Tea Festivals appeared first on Tea Infusiast.

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.)

Bring Empty Bags for Tea

Bring empty, refillable bags for tea. Nicole Wilson of Tea for Me Please shared this excellent tip with me before the festival and I passed it along to a friend. Bringing empty food storage bags can allow you split tea purchases with friends and distribute the tea. (You could also just gift a friend some tea from your purchase, too!)

This way, you can buy more different kinds of tea, more affordably than you might be able to otherwise. This is a really helpful tip for attending tea festivals where you will know other people.

Bring a Backpack or a Tote Bag

Bring a backpack or tote bag. Although tea festivals in the three different places I have attended them each provided a tote bag to attendees, if your purchases get heavy, it can be really useful to divide them among two totes or slide some into a backpack. Not absolutely necessary, but something to think about.

(Photo: Sierra Joseph-Quon smiling behind The Tea Practitioner booth at the Toronto Tea Festival in 2024. In the foreground, you can see the orange tote bags the festival gave ticket holders before running out on Sunday and switching to pink.)

Bring a Water Bottle and a Few Napkins

Bring a water bottle and a few napkins (or a clean cloth). If you are like me, you can’t drink endless caffeine and you need to stay hydrated. It’s not always easy to find water fountains these days. I’m not even sure I have ever seen a tea festival selling water bottles either. And, water often has to be lugged from afar at tea festivals, so I would never want to ask a vendor for some of their water. So, bringing a water bottle to the tea festival is a good idea.

I also recommend bringing a few napkins or a cloth to occasionally wipe out the tasting cup that tea festivals usually provide. Cleaning your cup from time to time will allow you to more clearly taste the teas. (You could also use a splash of water from your water bottle to help the process along.) This tip for attending tea festivals will help you better evaluate the tea samples available.

Eat Before Attending Tea Festivals

Eat before you attend. I credit Taniya Gupta of YogaTeaPoetry for this tip! It’s tempting to think about the snacks you might be able to buy there. But, how is your stomach going to feel if you don’t eat a proper meal while spending the day becoming highly caffeinated? Eating before you attend–and planning for a mid-day meal as well if you will be at the festival all day–will keep the experience more enjoyable.

Plan to Take Breaks

Plan to take breaks! Tea festivals–particularly those held indoors–can get crowded, noisy, and intense in the vendor areas. (Check out the crush of humanity in the background of this selfie from the Toronto Tea Festival in 2024. It doesn’t even completely convey how crowded it was!) Stepping off the vendor floor to attend tea talks or workshops definitely helps.

Still, there’s no replacing stepping out to get a little air, take a walk, and/or find a quieter place to sit. I find these kinds of breaks help me enjoy the frenetic festival energy more than if I just tried to stay there the entire day. I highly recommend stepping out and then returning.

(Photo of tea friends with crowd in the background of the Toronto Tea Festival 2024: Marco from Steap’d, me, Kelly from @ros_strange, and Taniya from YogaTeaPoetry.)

Do you have a tip for attending tea festivals that I didn’t share? We’d love to hear them. Let us know in the comments!

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