Back for the 3rd Year running!
The micro-festival that is anything but and offers you the chance to sip great whisky with our effort to take all that a larger festival offers and shrink it down – a tasting table for variety, some fantastic exhibitors and even masterclasses, all in a single 1pm – 6pm session, with a garden to relax in. This year we’re supporting St Leonard’s Hospice – who provide amazing care and support for terminally ill people and their families.
WHAT IS A MICRO-FESTIVAL?
In a nutshell – shrink down the variety of a larger festival, make it more personal with more time to savour and chat over a dram with a spot of York Whisky Club ‘surprise and delight’ magic. In the words of a 2024 attendee:
“Just a brief note to acknowledge what a brilliant event the Festival on Saturday was and to pass on the thanks of my little band of co-conspirators. Each and every one of us enjoyed the day enormously. The venue is superb and we felt the numbers worked very well in the space afforded. You hit the nail soundly on the head when you mentioned that you wished to create a more social atmosphere with time and space to chat with fellow guests and the stand holders. You certainly achieved that.”
EXHIBITORS
Cooper King
Winners of ‘Dram of the Night’ in our all stars Dream Dram 2024 tasting with their double matured New Oak into Armagnac, we were keen to see what else they had hidden in a cask. We served their maturing malt in our first micro-festival in 2022 so it was entirely right we see what has changed in 3 years. Being the LOVELY people they are, Abbie and Chris have also donated a bottle of their latest release Pioneer (RRP £85) for our SUPERDRAW – open to anyone making a donation to the charity we’re supporting (St Leonard’s Hospice) during checkout.
St Leonard’s Hospice DREAM DRAM Table
St Leonard’s happens to have a few volunteers who LOVE whisky. So we came up with an idea – a table stuffed with Dream Drams with a slight encouragement to nudge a few pennies to our JustGiving £5k target after sipping those dreams. Fancy trying a Springbank September release in July (!) …. get that change ready!
The Whisky Exchange
A giant of the whisky retailing world, when brand ambassador Billy Abbott said they had some great new whiskies to try, we were keen to get him on a train. If the Copperworks, Release 046 American Single Malt Whiskey he sent for our Going Global II tasting, we’re in for some treats.
The Whisky Lounge
Our big sibling in the York Whisky Festival world, having served great cocktails at our 2023 summer festival, we were keen to get them back in the Micro-Festival to find out about the excitements as they build up to their 20th anniversary York Whisky Festival in October. In a move to be kind to the 🌱 and improve the sustainability of both of our festivals, we will offer attendees brand-new TWL glasses (from previous festivals) to use and keep – these would otherwise have gone to waste.
Uncharted Whisky
At York Whisky Club, we invite attendees to suggest interesting whisky for us to check out, especially with independent bottlers. This led to a bottle of their Auchroisk sherry bomb ‘Thunderstruck‘ … yes we were, so were delighted when Jack and Dana got in touch.
Whisky Situation
When we were looking for intriguing and usual drams for Going Global II, we met Carlos, owner of Whisky Situation, just as he was about to rescue a famous Aberdeen whisky bar. We bought a Romanian whisky and discovered his ethos that whisky 🥃 is for drinking not hoarding – a view we heartily share and is a PERFECT fit for our micro-festival.
York Whisky Club Tasting Table
Being a micro-festival, we deliberately keep the exhibitors to a select few, but we still want to give attendees the whisky world. Our tasting table will contain a selection of hand-picked delights.
Is that it? Of course not…
You can also expect:
- Surprise prizes – who doesn’t like a random giveaway?
- Charity auction – to raise money for St Leonard’s Hospice
- Complimentary snacks – the free crisps and pork pies went down a treat halfway between
- Masterclasses – we’re going to try doing these in the garden this year!
- Great whisky – in case you got this far and hadn’t twigged 🙂