Recently, the 2026 Shanghai International Coffee Culture Festival officially kicked off at the Hongkou North Bund Water Stage. The theme of the event is "Tasting the World in Shanghai", promoting the integrated development of "Coffee+Culture, Business, Travel and Sports Exhibition", connecting global flavors with a cup of coffee, activating consumer vitality, and conveying urban temperature, fully igniting the "May Day" holiday craze.
Zhao Jiaming, member of the Standing Committee of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Minister of Propaganda, Lu Shan, Deputy Mayor of Shanghai, Yang Zheng, Secretary and Director of the Party Group of the Shanghai Municipal Government Cooperation and Exchange Office, Li Qian, Secretary of the Hongkou District Committee, Jiang Rui, Deputy Secretary and District Chief of the Hongkou District Committee, Huang Binbing, Deputy Minister of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department and Deputy Director of the Shanghai State owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, Liu Yan, Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee of the Taiwan Democratic League, and others attended the event.
Li Qian delivered a welcome speech. He said that in Hongkou, every cup of coffee records a unique urban memory. This year's coffee festival deeply explores the integration value of "coffee+cultural, business, and sports exhibitions". When coffee meets culture, world champions and top bakers from around the world make collective appearances, and cultural performances, intangible cultural heritage experiences, and book markets take turns to appear, presenting new expressions of old stories; When coffee and business travel are integrated, coffee festivals, wine festivals, and flower festivals are linked in a dreamy way, with first store launches, trendy cultural and creative events, and a colorful collection of specialty foods. "Day coffee and night wine" operates at all times, and "ticket economy" is linked throughout the entire business district, constantly unlocking diverse new consumption scenarios; When coffee accompanies physical exhibitions, the "coffee" feast covering water, land, and air blooms brilliantly, and the riverside sports, street art, and outdoor performances are full of vitality. Coffee will organically connect history and modernity, local and international, making Hongkou more accessible, playable, purchasable, and enjoyable, comprehensively enhancing the global influence of Shanghai's urban brand.
Huang Binbing pointed out in his speech that coffee is a vivid footnote to the character of Shanghai city. In Shanghai, experiencing the world. The taste is the flavor of five continents in a cup of coffee, and it is also the embrace of Shanghai that embraces all rivers. Currently, Shanghai is accelerating the integration of cultural, commercial, sports and exhibition development, striving to create the "first stop" for inbound tourism in China. We connect the world with a cup of coffee, allowing every friend who comes from afar to feel the warmth, diversity, and vitality of this city in the misty aroma. When the global travel of taste buds intersects with Shanghai culture and international trends again, we use "coffee+" as the key to open the boundaries of imagination, break down the walls of business models, connect coffee with everything, blend with everything, inspire more vivid urban expressions, and bloom more unexpected surprises. Sincerely invite friends from all over the world to come to Shanghai and Hongkou, have a cup of coffee, taste a city, and embark on a beautiful encounter with the world.
At the opening ceremony, the Shanghai Cultural and Creative Industry Promotion Association, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Cultural Innovation and Youth Development Research Institute, Hongqiao International Coffee Port, Meituan, Taotian Group, and Taobao Flash Shopping jointly released the "2026 China Urban Coffee Development Report", with core data released by Xu Jian, Vice Dean of the School of Media and Communication at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The report shows that by 2025, the scale of China's coffee industry will reach 354.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.3%, and the number of coffee stores in Shanghai will reach 10336, officially crossing the threshold of 10000 stores.
Announce the lineup of recommended officials for this year's coffee festival on site. Renowned Shanghai actors Chen Long and Zhang Lingzhi, international Latin dance judge Sergei Sinkins, Zhiyuan Robot, and King of Glory hero Li Bai have been jointly hired to achieve cross disciplinary integration of humanities, international, technology, and trends, further enhancing the dissemination and influence of the event.
To further amplify the driving effect of coffee consumption, the Coffee Festival has collaborated with multiple platforms to launch a "Coffee+Culture, Business, Travel and Sports Exhibition" linkage activity, launching a series of measures to benefit the people. The "Coffee+" project of Shanghai Yunnan cooperation has been signed, further connecting the entire chain system from variety cultivation, IP empowerment to financial and insurance protection, promoting the transformation of Shanghai Yunnan cooperation from industrial assistance to value co creation, and injecting new momentum into rural revitalization.
As the main venue of this year's coffee festival, the largest open waterfront coffee life carnival in the city was presented from April 30th to May 4th on the North Bund in Hongkou. The 2.3-kilometer riverside area gathers nearly 300 brand booths and more than 20 international coffee brands, deeply integrating diverse scenes such as intangible cultural heritage handicrafts, old brand revitalization, film and music, gaming and e-sports, leisure fishing, etc., allowing citizens and tourists to experience the infinite possibilities of "coffee+" life in one-stop shopping, tasting, playing, and enjoying.
The main venue is divided into four sections: international zone, industry chain zone, cross-border integration zone, and interactive experience zone, bringing together top coffee brands and popular local shops from five continents around the world. From champion coffee brands in Sweden, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, and other places to local boutique coffee representatives in Shanghai, it provides citizens and tourists with a one-stop experience of global flavors. At the same time, we will innovate and create an integrated visual effect of "water, land, and air", with water stage performances, waterfront light and shadow shows, and exclusive airship low altitude parades for coffee festivals. Paired with unique check-in devices, we will turn the entire riverside into a richly layered urban festival showcase. In addition, interactive content such as fun fishing and live action doll machines are also integrated on site, linking with exhibition activities such as the 2026 Shanghai Illustration Art Festival and the 2026 Shanghai Hongkou Flower Festival, allowing citizens and tourists to experience the relaxed and comfortable holiday in Shanghai in diverse scenes.
This year's coffee festival also links 16 districts in the city and the new area in Lingang, forming a "one district, one characteristic" coffee culture map, gathering nearly 200 global top coffee brands and industry chain enterprises, launching nearly 50 benchmark activities, connecting over 6000 merchants throughout the city, and hosting more than 40 international professional events at the same time. It connects bookstores, cinemas, cultural museums, scenic spots, commercial districts, sports events and professional exhibitions, and launches various measures such as themed book lists, ticket exchanges, scene experiences, and consumption subsidies, comprehensively expanding new coffee consumption scenes, activating the May Day consumption trend with high-frequency formats, and allowing the whole city to share the richness and comfort of the festival in the fragrance of coffee.
To gather power, promote commerce, develop industry, and benefit the people through festivals. The 2026 Shanghai International Coffee Culture Festival takes coffee as a bridge, bringing together guests from all over the world, integrating diverse business formats, and igniting consumption throughout the city. It promotes the deep integration of coffee culture into daily urban life, becoming a city cultural calling card that citizens can perceive, participate in, and share. It injects strong momentum into Shanghai's construction as an international consumption center city and a world cultural metropolis.
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