16 July 2026

Coffee Stop Before the Curtain Rises: A Salzburg Café Tip for the Festival Weeks

An iced beverage in a unique glass on a patterned mat.

Quick Read

• The 2026 Salzburg Festival officially opens on 17 July and will once again turn Salzburg's Old Town into an international meeting place for music, theatre and culture.
• Just a short walk from the Grosses Festspielhaus, Afro Café combines Salzburg's coffeehouse tradition with contemporary espresso creations – while Afro Coffee has recently shared several summer recipes that can also be recreated at home.

As visitors arrive in Salzburg for the opening weekend of the 2026 Salzburg Festival (17 July – 30 August), many are planning more than evenings at the opera or theatre. Cafés remain an essential part of the city's cultural rhythm, offering places to meet before performances or pause between museum visits. Fashion.at recently looked ahead to this year's festival programme and paired selected cultural highlights with style suggestions inspired by Salzburg's elegant summer atmosphere. The feature can be found here.

A café between art and performance

One possible stop during a festival day is Afro Café, located at Bürgerspitalplatz 5, between the Museum der Moderne Salzburg and the Grosses Festspielhaus. The café belongs to Afro Coffee, whose story began in Cape Town, where entrepreneur Grant Rushmere opened the first Afro Café in 2005. Later that year, Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz introduced the concept to Europe, and the Salzburg flagship café opened in 2006.

Today Afro Coffee offers roasted coffee beans, ground coffee, espresso capsules compatible with Nespresso systems, teas and coffee accessories. Its coffee portfolio focuses mainly on beans sourced from East Africa, particularly Ethiopia and Tanzania.

A light coffee choice for summer

Among the seasonal drinks currently featured at Afro Café is the Iced Coconut Coffee. Compared with many flavoured iced coffee creations, the beverage places the emphasis on the espresso while adding a light tropical note, making it one of the café's refreshing summer options.

Recipe idea: Coconut Cloud Iced Latte

Alongside the café menu, Afro Coffee recently distributed several summer recipes designed for home preparation. One of them, the Coconut Cloud Iced Latte, develops the coconut theme further with an airy espresso cream.

Ingredients
• Ice cubes
• Coconut water
• 1 espresso (Afro Coffee Mild & Aromatic)
• Condensed milk
• Whipping cream
• Vanilla syrup

Preparation
Fill a glass with ice cubes and pour in the coconut water. Prepare one espresso and allow it to cool completely. Whip the espresso together with condensed milk, whipping cream and a small amount of vanilla syrup until light and creamy. Spoon the coffee foam carefully over the coconut water to create the characteristic "cloud" effect before serving.

Image: A frosted, multi-tiered glass containing a layered iced coffee drink with coconut foam, sits on a patterned blue textile. Photo: © Afro Coffee