I’m not going to lie: I almost cried inside the Schokoladefest. Tears of joy. Yeah, I like chocolate.
- Numerous booths selling all forms of chocolate
- Full of variety and ingenuity
- Additional entertainments, too
- Next dates: Jan 30-31, 2027
- Book a chocolate workshop* in Vienna
- See also:
Lots. Of. Chocolate.
(Not your standard bars of milk chocolate; press photo courtesy of and © Schokoladefest)
Walking into the Schokoladefest felt like entering some Wonka-like world. A place where your chocolate dreams come true.
Think of it as a craft chocolate festival with dozens of stands occupied by chocolatiers and confectioners. Not really a place for the standard snack bars you might find at the grocery store counter. Chocolate with finesse and imagination in a myriad of forms, colours and applications.
Bars, pralines, dragees and spreads. Fruit dipped in chocolate. Pyramids of pastries. Ice cream and chocolate drinks. Cocoa beans and powders. All for sale with occasional samples for tasting, too.
(We may have gone a little overboard on purchases at one festival)
You’d like Vermeer’s painting of a Girl with a Pearl Earring in chocolate form? This is the place. Chocolate-flavoured beer? Step this way.
A 16.5m2 300 kg bar of Belgian chocolate even put in an appearance one year (and a giant brownie the next) to raise money for a cancer charity.
It’s not all chocolate, either.
A large street food section offered nourishment of a more sustaining kind. In 2026, for example, I dined on vegetarian momos and organic chips (French fries), while my companion went for ham-filled savoury pancakes.
The food section might even produce the occasional surprise: I once found a rather nice mountain cheese with a hint of peppermint there.
Cheese and chocolate: the Gods smiled on us that day.
(Be still my beating heart; press photo courtesy of and © Schokoladefest)
Entertainments through the day also rounded off the event. Rides for the kids, for example, and a stage with demonstrations, presentations and live music.
Willy Wonka would approve.
Dates, tickets & tips
The 2027 chocolate festival takes place on January 30th and 31st. Late enough in the year for foolish and misplaced new year dietary resolutions to be a distant memory.
Weekend opening times last time out were:
- Saturday: 10am to 6pm
- Sunday: 10am to 5pm
Tickets are normally available online through the website (see below) and also on the door.
If you like chocolate, Vienna has more cocoa-filled delights for you:
- Your first address should probably be to book a chocolate workshop, where you get to pour and decorate three bars, but also make an original Aztec chocolate drink. We had a lot of fun there
- A walk through the shopping streets of the old town should turn up several specialist chocolate shops along the way. Lindt has one opposite the opera house, for example
- Both Vienna’s coffee houses and Konditoreien offer chocolate in liquid and, particularly, cake form. The city is home to the Sachertorte, after all
How to get there
The Marx Halle hosts the event. Check my overview of the venue for travel tips.
Address: Karl-Farkas-Gasse 19, 1030 Vienna | Website (for the event)