Programme Launch attracts Record Bookings

17 Jan 2010

Record sales in first few hours at launch of Spirit of Speyside Whisky Festival Programme for 2010.

The programme of events went live on Friday 15th January at 8pm and some popular events sold out within one and a half hours! A record number of tickets were sold this year in the first few hours, with almost 500 tickets in just 3 hours and just under 1,000 tickets in one day. As expected the most popular were the unique tours and tastings at distilleries not normally open to visitors.

The response to the programme was great on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter where visitors were able to get direct communication lines with the Festival support team. The launch attracted many international visitors from around the world, ranging from the Scandinavian countries to India and Japan.

The programme this year shows some great all-time favourites and some exciting new events. The Festival will kick off with an Opening Dinner at Benromach Distillery in Forres on Thursday 29th April.

Some highlights still available are the Whisky School offering three days of undiluted whisky education with many interesting site visits included and the Speyside Whisky Awards finals where festival visitors get the chance to vote for their favorites at a blind tasting.

Many well-known whisky authors put in an appearance again at various events, such as Martine Nouet, Dave Broom, David Wishart, Gavin Smith, Hans Offringa and others.

Another highlight includes the ceremonious transfer of the Spirit of Speyside Festival Flag from Benromach Distillery to Glenfarclas Distillery. At the opening dinner the Festival Flag will be hoisted at Benromach Distillery where it will remain until Sunday 2nd May when the flag will leave the Distillery to start the journey to Glenfarclas who will be the keepers of the Flag until the next Festival. The journey will include two mounted cavalcades parading through Forres and Grantown-on-Spey and a mountain biking trip along the Dava Way before the flag will be handed over to the keepers for the coming year.  On Monday 3rd May the next leg of the journey will be by canoe trip along the River Spey.  And this is where Festival visitors can help carry the Festival Flag across Speyside, whilst exploring the area at the river's pace. This part of the flag journey celebrates the importance of the River Spey, its people,  its history and reputation as one of the most famous salmon fishing rivers in the world, promising a great day out.

To enable visitors and locals to get around the Festival events safely and conveniently the Festival has some subsidised transport options available again, with thanks to support from Diageo. The taxi vouchers introduced last year were are great success and will be available again this year. These offer up to 50% discount towards taxi trips. New to the Festival is a dial-a-bus scheme which will offer economic and flexible transport to festival events and distilleries throughout the area. More details on the transport options are available on the website.

Every effort has been made to have the programme as complete as possible by the launch date, but there will continue to be events added to the programme until nearer the Festival. In particular communities are now organsing their 'fringe events' such as family entertainment and local ceilidhs and other music events. Tell us what you would like to do most during the festival in between those indulging whisky events! Contact Festival Manager Pamela Looper by email or talk to us on Facebook!

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