Organisers of the Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival are in high spirits after witnessing the busiest 24-hour period following the launch of the programme of events since the Festival began 13 years ago.
Date:
Thu, 26 Jan 2012
Source:
Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival
Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival:
Website
Whisky enthusiasts worldwide wasted no time accessing the Festival’s website when it went live at 7pm on Saturday, 21st January and within 12 hours, 33 of the 300 events were sold out, including the exclusive Opening Dinner which is being held at The Macallan Distillery.
The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival, running from 3rd-7th May, has grown in stature year on year to become one of the most important whisky festivals in the world and one of the key festivals on the Scottish events calendar.
Mary Hemsworth, festival manager, said that everyone was thrilled with the response to this year’s line-up of events, but that there were still plenty of outstanding and quality events for visitors to book.
She commented: "Ticket sales for the first day were in excess of £50,000 with three months still to go until the Festival itself.
"It’s also encouraging to see that thousands of our whisky fans are keeping up-to-date with the Festival via Facebook and Twitter – they’ll be the first to know of any new events that are added to the programme, and any key announcements we may make over the coming months."
The most popular events included exclusive tours of distilleries not normally open to the public, "ultimate" tours of some of the finest whisky distilleries in the world, whisky and food-pairing workshops, the intriguing Mystery Bus Tour of Speyside, a tour around the five distilleries of Elgin and the popular Seven Stills Bus Tour.
Visitors to the Festival will be coming from as far afield as Japan, Australia, Russia, South Africa, Canada and the USA with the majority making the journey from closer shores such as Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Germany and the UK.
Mary continued: "Speyside and the wider area benefit greatly from the Whisky Festival each year, both in terms of reputation and financially.
"So it’s important that we offer a strong line-up of events to encourage visitors to return year after year to share their passion for the world’s finest whiskies, and to appeal to new visitors to come and experience Malt Whisky country and the Whisky Festival for themselves.
"From the response we’ve seen in these first few days we will be welcoming the usual big crowds, but hopefully this may be the best attended and finest Festival yet."
The Festival also runs several competitions and awards including the prestigious Spirit of Speyside Whisky Awards as well as photographic competition.
For up-to-date news, follow the Festival at www.facebook.com/WhiskyFestival or www.twitter.com/spirit_speyside.
The Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival has received funding from EventScotland and is also financially supported by many other private and public partners.
More information:
EventScotland.
More whisky industry news from Scotland.
More food and tourism news from Scotland.
Looking to source whisky? Use Scotland Food & Drink's Buyers' Guide.