The 2026 Athens Coffee Festival drew 19,019 visitors over three days, according to the organiser. The people who tasted your coffee at the stand took a card with your address and moved on to the next one. A stand brings you a crowd for three days. To find those people again afterwards, you need their mobile number and their permission to contact them.
Coffee and beer events in Greece
- Athens Coffee Festival: Technopolis City of Athens, Gazi, late September (26 to 28 September in 2026). Open to the public, with a ticket.
- World of Beer Festival: Technopolis City of Athens, May (8 to 10 May in 2026). The organiser counted 20,162 visitors.
- Greek Beer Festival Only Craft: the old bus depot (Amaxostasio) at Ermou and Pireos in Gazi, March (27 to 29 March in 2026), with beers from Greek microbreweries.
- Peloponnese Beer Festival: West Coast Park, Kalamata, late July (31 July to 2 August in 2026), with more than 300 craft beer labels according to the organiser.
- HORECA: Metropolitan Expo, February (12 to 15 February 2027). A trade show for hospitality and food service professionals, home to the Panhellenic Coffee Championships. In 2026 the organiser counted 74,750 visitors and 500 exhibitors.
Dates change every year, so check them on the organiser’s site before you book a stand. At HORECA the visitor owns a café or a hotel, and you keep them with a good trade offer. What follows suits the public festivals, where a visitor can become a customer of your shop.
At the stand
A QR poster
Download the poster with your shop’s QR code from the admin and print it big enough to read from two metres. The visitor scans it, your shop’s page opens and they join your card in the Rubik app.
A sign-up gift
Set gift stamps or points for everyone who signs up, so visitors leave with a card that has already started. Joseph Nunes and Xavier Drèze gave some customers a 10-space card with 2 stamps already on it, and others an 8-space card with none. Both needed 8 purchases. 34% filled the first and 19% the second (Journal of Consumer Research, 2006).
When there’s a queue
At peak times not everyone will wait to download an app. The colleague at the stand asks the visitor whether they want a card, types their mobile number in the admin on a tablet and gives them the gift stamp. The card opens under that number, and when the visitor downloads the app with the same phone number they find it ready. Tell them in one sentence: “Download Rubik when you have a minute, your stamp is already there.”
For people who live in another city
In Kalamata or at Technopolis you’ll meet people who never pass through your neighbourhood. If you sell coffee or beer online, Rubik’s plugin for WooCommerce or PrestaShop gives points on e-shop orders too (Premium plan). More in the guide on connecting loyalty to your e-shop.
The messages after the festival
On the Monday after the festival, send a push to all your customers, worded so it also fits the regulars who weren’t there:
“We saw you at the Athens Coffee Festival! The espresso you tried is waiting for you at the shop, [address], and your gift stamp is already on your card.”
Two weeks later, send a coupon with an expiry date, for example a free pastry with a coffee until the end of the month. A coupon with no expiry sits on the phone and gets forgotten. For the wording and how long it should run, see the guide on creating a digital coupon.
For promotional email and SMS you need the customer’s prior consent (Greek Law 3471/2006, article 11, and the GDPR). Ask for it at the stand, and don’t assume it because someone scanned the QR code.
After those first two messages, automatic win-back does the work: anyone who comes to the shop and then stops gets a message under the rules you set. On the Starter and Premium plans it is switched on from the start.
Was the stand worth it?
The Rubik dashboard shows new customers per period, so you can see how many signed up during the festival days. More useful is counting how many of them got a stamp in your shop over the next two months. You see that in the customer list, in each customer’s stamp history.
An example with made-up numbers: the stand cost you €1,500 including the coffee you gave away. 400 visitors signed up and 60 of them came to the shop within two months. Each new customer cost you €25. If a regular leaves you €2.40 gross profit per coffee and comes twice a week, the €25 comes back in about five weeks. For what a customer is worth over time, see the article on customer lifetime value.
Rubik’s stamp plan is free for the first month, enough to try the poster at one festival. After that, for unlimited members, messages and automatic win-back, plans start at €23/month billed annually, before VAT (see the pricing page).