A 4-day coffee festival in Tanjong Pagar will bring together 34 roasters from around the world

Singapore is “definitely up there as one of the world’s great coffee cities,” declares Leon Foo. Coffee drinkers here are increasingly sophisticated and knowledgeable. And, more and more people are travelling to Singapore to discover new concepts and meet our roasters and operators, he said.

The time is right, he thinks, for “another” coffee festival – one that’s different from what’s already out there.

If anybody would know, it’s Foo, a household name among local coffee enthusiasts and best known for founding PPP Coffee (formerly Papa Palheta), Chye Seng Huat Hardware and Morning. In fact, it is Foo, along with people like Will Leow who started specialty coffee chain Alchemist, who can claim responsibility for building that vibrant coffee scene.

Foo and Leow are organising the inaugural Another Coffee Festival, taking place from Sep 3 to 6 at Guoco Tower Urban Park. Open to the public, the festival will see the participation of 34 acclaimed specialty coffee roasters from nine countries and regions across Asia and Europe, including 19 Singapore-based local favourite roasters. Internationally acclaimed roasters include Fuglen from Norway, Center Coffee from South Korea, Coffee County from Japan, Common Grounds from Indonesia and Yardstick Coffee from the Philippines.

Visitors can purchase a reusable festival cup and tasting tokens that can be exchanged for coffee. There’s also the chance to attend curated tastings and conversations with founders and roasters. South Korean artist and illustrator Moonsub Shin will create a large-scale illustrated festival visual wall live on Sep 3, in addition to daily live illustration sessions with custom drawings on festival cups. And, there’ll be exclusive festival merchandise as well as limited-edition roasts.

“Singapore already has excellent trade shows, professional competitions and a very strong cafe culture. But we felt there was a missing middle ground: an open platform where industry professionals, enthusiasts and complete newcomers could meet on equal footing,” Foo explained. 

“Many existing industry events are necessarily technical or transactional. We wanted to complement them with an experience centred on discovery, culture and human connection – to present coffee not only as a product or profession, but as a cultural, creative and social experience.”

Hence, the “deliberately self-aware” name Another Coffee Festival: “Yes, Singapore may already have coffee festivals, but the point is to offer another way of experiencing coffee. It should feel approachable enough for someone who knows nothing about specialty coffee, while still being meaningful to people who have spent their careers in the industry.”

The aim is to create value for the local coffee community. “We have both benefited tremendously from Singapore’s specialty coffee ecosystem, and we felt a responsibility to contribute to its next stage of growth,” Leow said. “Running our own businesses also means we understand the challenges faced by operators and roasters because we live them ourselves. We didn't want to organise an event from the outside looking in.”

After attending coffee events overseas, Foo said, “we would come back asking ourselves why certain events felt so vibrant and memorable. Often, it wasn't because they were bigger or more technically impressive. It was because the local coffee community had taken ownership of them. The event felt like an expression of the city and its coffee culture.

“At the same time, we knew Singapore already had the talent, the roasters, the cafes and an increasingly sophisticated audience. What we didn't have was an independent platform that brought all of that together while also connecting Singapore more deliberately with the international coffee community. Eventually, the question became: ‘Instead of waiting for someone else to create it, why don't we?’”

Foo and Leow say the initiative is a non-profit, industry-led event. “For us, non-profit means that maximising profit is not the objective. The priority is participation and creating long-term value for the coffee community,” said Leow. 

He added: “The festival was initially funded by the founders, and is also supported through a combination of sponsorships, partnerships, participating brands and festival activities. Any surplus generated will be reinvested into future festivals or other initiatives that benefit the wider specialty coffee ecosystem. That structure matters because it allows us to make decisions based on what we believe serves the community, rather than what generates the greatest commercial return.”

They hope to build Another Coffee Festival up into an annual event. If it “eventually becomes a year-round platform for education, workshops, collaborations and exchange, and Singapore becomes a place where the regional and international coffee community naturally comes together, that would be far more meaningful than attendance numbers alone,” Leow said.

“Success could mean international roasters returning to collaborate with Singapore businesses, homegrown roasters finding opportunities overseas, or new talent being inspired to enter the industry,” Foo said. 

“We’d also like to know that someone who knew nothing about specialty coffee walked out feeling curious and confident enough to explore it further; or that a Singapore roaster met an international counterpart at the festival and six months later, they're doing something together.”  

If you only have time to explore three visiting roasters at the festival, Leow recommends these:

“Fuglen from Norway brings a very distinctive Nordic perspective to coffee and a philosophy that extends beyond coffee into design and culture. Felt from South Korea represents another side of Asia's rapidly evolving specialty coffee scene – Korea has developed an incredibly sophisticated coffee culture, and Felt brings a very clear, contemporary approach to it.” 

Finally, “Terraform Coffee Roasters from Shanghai is particularly interesting because it represents how quickly China's specialty coffee scene has evolved. Their team comes from a strong competitive coffee background, particularly in roasting and brewing.

“Together, these three give Singaporeans a chance to experience three very different coffee cultures – Nordic, Korean and Chinese – and that's exactly what we want Another Coffee Festival to be about.”

Of course, “these aren't necessarily the biggest names on the programme,” he said. “Part of the fun should be discovering someone you hadn't heard of before and leaving as a fan.”

Another Coffee Festival runs from Sep 3 to 6 at Guoco Tower Urban Park, 1 Wallich St, Singapore 078881. For more information, visit https://www.anothercoffee.sg/