Ipoh Coffee Vibes 2026 is the city's first dedicated coffee festival, and it lands on the Old Town riverfront next to Jalan Sultan Iskandar from 10 to 13 September. Perak tourism exco Loh Sze Yee told a press conference on 1 September that organisers want about 40,000 people through the site over four nights, with more than 50 food and drink stalls and free entry. The pitch is blunt: white coffee made Ipoh famous, but the cup on this stretch of Sungai Kinta is supposed to cover Malay kopi, Indian kopi tarik, specialty pours and a Starbucks stand as well.
10 September starts at 2pm
Oriental Daily and Guangming both logged the timetable from the same briefing. Thursday 10 September runs 2pm to 11pm. Friday through Sunday, 11 to 13 September, the gates open later, 4pm to 11pm. That first-day head start is the one to use if you want daylight on the pedestrian bridge before the stage lights go up.
The site is the new riverfront link between Old Town and New Town, behind Concubine Lane and beside Jalan Sultan Iskandar. Loh said the bridge itself was built with more than RM5 million in funding, executed by Majlis Bandaraya Ipoh, precisely so visitors can walk the two sides of the river instead of driving between them. If you have ever done dinner in Old Town and then lost 20 minutes in a Grab to Greentown, this is the city's answer.
Tourism Perak was at the briefing at Sin Yoon Loong Stables Market and listed the co-organisers as the Perak EXCO office for tourism, industry, investment and corridor development, plus Persatuan Vitaliti Kinta Perak, with MOTAC and Tourism Perak as partners. Stall bookings for Greenery Market vendors were still being taken after the briefing on WhatsApp 013-4805953.
Kopi Rakyat, stamps, and the RM50 draw
Participating coffee sellers are putting out a festival line called Kopi Rakyat, priced to be drunk standing up rather than treated as a souvenir. Bernama quoted Loh on the spend mechanics. Spend RM50 or more on site and you enter a lucky draw for cash vouchers that can be used immediately at the stalls. Spend RM100 or more and you can redeem a set of Ipoh Coffee Vibes special-edition souvenirs. Oriental Daily described the same scheme as a stamp card that converts into cups and other merch. Bring small notes. Festival tills on a riverbank are not a place to test a foreign card.
Chang Jiang White Coffee is pouring cups for free, which is the one line in the official briefing that will actually move a queue. The brand is also the one with a sit-down kopitiam already on this river, CJ12 at People's Park, so the free pour is not a pop-up from KL. It is the house brand of the bank.
Chang Jiang is pouring for free
If you want a table after the stalls, Chang Jiang's People's Park kopitiam is the practical overflow. The outlet sits in Kompleks Bangunan Taman Persisiran Sungai Kinta on Jalan Sultan Iskandar, the same riverfront, and it already runs late, 8am to midnight. The plates that keep this shop busy are not espresso flights. They are curry mee with tau pok, nasi lemak with prawn and egg rolls, Hainanese chicken chop, and kaya butter toast on the old aluminium saucers. White coffee on the cafe menu sits around RM7.90 a cup on current published lists. The festival free pour is the teaser. The sit-down is how you actually eat.
Tasteeipoh's festival write-up also names Sin Yoon Loong and Hola Hola Kopitiam as partners building outdoor white-coffee tea shops along the river, with Sin Yoon Loong putting up a "story corridor" on how white coffee was roasted. That is the heritage argument the state is trying to make: the Hainanese sock-pot shops in Old Town are not the whole map. Hola Hola's own shop is at 67 Jalan Medan Ipoh 1A in Taman Ipoh Timur, 10am to 10pm, and they will be on the river for the four nights rather than asking you to cab out to Medan Ipoh.
If you want the longer white-coffee background before you go, we already keep a walking note on the Old Town shops in Ipoh Old Town White Coffee.
Stage nights and mooncakes on the bridge
Tourism Perak's briefing list is the one I would actually plan around: a Kita FM concert, kopi tarik and flying roti canai demonstrations, a fire show, live bands, and the usual flash-mob percussion dressed as a kopitiam. Loh also listed a white-coffee-shop percussion set and a multicultural instrument flash mob. Astro is sending MY FM and MELODY FM DJs back to Ipoh for the nights. Treat the stage as background unless you came for Kita FM. The stalls will be louder than the PA once the queues form.
Because the dates sit on the run-up to Mid-Autumn Festival, several traditional mooncake brands are taking stalls, including halal mooncakes so Malay and Indian visitors are not locked out of the festive tray. That is a small, useful detail. Ipoh festivals sometimes forget it.
Loh's other argument was about nights, not coffee. He said too many people eat in Ipoh and sleep in Penang or KL. A four-night riverfront with 50 stalls is the state's attempt to hold them until 11pm. If you are already in town on Sunday 13 September, WVC Jazz is the sit-down contrast: 2pm at 1969 D'Kelly Hotel, RM125 with hi-tea. We covered that separately in WVC Jazz at 1969 D'Kelly Hotel.
Practical Details
- Dates: 10 to 13 September 2026
- Time: 10 Sep, 2pm to 11pm; 11 to 13 Sep, 4pm to 11pm
- Venue: Riverfront Old Town Ipoh, pedestrian bridge next to Jalan Sultan Iskandar, behind Concubine Lane
- Nearest station: Ipoh Railway Station, then a 10 to 15 minute walk through Old Town, or Grab to Jalan Sultan Iskandar
- Price: Free entry. Kopi Rakyat at stall prices. Lucky draw from RM50 spend. Souvenir set from RM100 spend. Chang Jiang white coffee poured free on site
- Website: Bernama briefing, 1 September 2026
