Spirit of Speyside

A dram of spirit in every glass!

Kickstarted the right way. A Highland Celebration of heritage and history. A dram in each hand and a hearty smile. The whisky festival began with a bang! Whisky tours on for most distilleries for the festival almost every hour, some of the more specialised tours were booked far before Christmas and were twice a day. Along with some art exhibitions.

With 91 thousand pounds worth of tickets being sold within the first hour of sales, it was obvious that the festival would have plenty of attention. With people coming from over 20 different countries to participate in Tastings to the local events.

On Thursday, Aberlour was wet and rainy the spirits of those around the complete opposite. 

With the scout Hall being used for the sale of whisky trinkets, whisky and other items given by distilleries the adventure started. Already packed in the morning barely 10 minutes in. The light reflected on tasting glasses, whiskies, panels of fired wood from barrels, coasters and even small notepads. The men running this event are the Rotary, their aim to raise money for them and other charities. They have been participating in the spirit of Speyside with their sales for 3 years with the hope of many more. Their success has landed them with large quantities towards charities and has been a huge success. With this success, however, there has been less merchandise to sell. The have a small raffle going for a malt along with a 2 tryst for 1 pound key for the box, where if you get the key that opens the box out of the bag them you get the whisky inside.

The still life Gallery Shop has had quite a turnout with works of art available and on display.


A few prices by Mathew O'Connor decorate the walls showing the Stills in pastels. Without the information beneath, however, you would be hard pressed to believe it! His work takes him on average 40 hours and the beautiful prices reflect that photography is not the only means to achieve a realistic creation.


Other artists have also displayed some of their fine creations in the shop, including a '50 colours of Scotland' picture which is different from what the artist normally paints but was much sought after by the Gallery Shop to be displayed for the festival. From pictures of the stills and distilleries to the Highland Cow, the Gallery Shop has a large range of the Scottish spirit to show and offer.

The evening proved to be an interesting event. An Evening with the Mates of the Whisky Museum showed that even in a small place like Dufftown there is always something that you don't know. The evening included tasting some fine whiskies along with banter and lively whisky music provided by the Whisky Bard, Robin Laing, who performed on the Sunday night of the Whisky Festival at the Saint James Hall.

Saturday at the Scottish Extravaganza, a local Scottish Theme day, there was no disappointment as Vikings marched through the streets, their group all the way from Orkney. Pipe bands played at the centre leading up to the Vikings marching into the picture and taking a central position to sing some old songs. See below for pictures of Vikings and some short clips of the bands. (An Arts and Crafts exhibition was also on in Aberlour on Saturday)

Youtube link to two of the pipe bands that played on the 29th in Elgin, https://youtu.be/XmBniC4zFJ0
OR Can be watched on this blog article
http://observeroftheecho.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/the-echo-observer-spirit-of-speyside.html

Food stalls, crafts stalls and charity stalls lined the plain stones. One food stall was owned by a lovely Turkish lady who was making Turkish Gozleme and letting festival goers have a taste. The leek and potato Gozleme were lovely, the whole of it was warm and filling.

From fudge to these Turkish dishes people were not hard pushed to find food. Whisky tasting and judging tent was in the centre just next to the main stalls, the Spirit of Speyside stall (see below) and the information stall.



The Spirit of Speyside stall was packed full of energy, enjoying the festival. The merchandise: the whisky was a blend of whiskies from all of the distillery sponsors, the tartan scarf specially designed and commissioned for the festival, along with the more common Spirit of Speyside nosing glasses that were on sale for 6 pounds or two for 10.

The weave of the Tartan has a red weave through it representing the Sherry Cask. And a golden weave representing the Whisky that has gone through the Matured Bourbon Cask.

Though this post only scratches the surface of the Spirit of Speyside, the Whisky Tours were fantastic and many a person wandered into a hotel a bit beyond tipsy. The Railway was also enveloped in the fun as a whisky trail tour was given on the Distilleries that the train passes. The Dufftown Whisky shop had a few whisky tastings where the whisky that was ranked first overall got named champion and the distillery gets a small trophie, and the best overall tasting note is chosen and the author of it is given their favourite whisky.

 Whether by happy mistake or on your part a lot of planning that you came to the festival; it is the participants, the locals and the orchestrator's hope that everyone that came has enjoyed the whisky Festival; The Spirit of Speyside.

This link will soon be linked to the pictures taken of the events.