Gin Festival 2015

It returned – the Gin Festival touring the country, headed back to Manchester at the end of last month, this time in an even bigger venue.

Rivalling IMBC for size and levels of booze, the Gin Festival came to Manchester’s Victoria Baths and over the space of three days saw 4000 gin lovers visit to sample the wares.

That’s a lot of gin. And tonic. And ice.

This year too saw cocktails make their way onto the menu options.

Of course, I went along for a nosey and to try and complete a little more gin pokemon (gotta catch ’em all) and to look at some new gins on offer too.

Expanding on last year, there were more samples on offer too, and we saw another north west gin on offer, Batch, a small craft gin made in Burnley, a lovely spicy, fragrant gin, with nutmeg frankincense and myrrh. It’s unusual flavours are just begging for cocktails I think.

We also saw newcomer Sir Robin of Locksley, another northerner, a sweeter floral gin, with elderflower as one of the botanicals, which looked to be going down very well at the event too.

Once again, I discovered new gins, new gin drinkers and have one or two that need to make their way onto my shelves, but I also took the time to speak to Jym, co-founder of the festivals to ask him why, how and of course, what his favourite gin is. Oh and to congratulate him and his wife Marie on their new arrival.

What made you set up gin festivals in the first place?

We went to an event back in 2012, expecting lots of gins to try and basically they were all gins you could get in the supermarket. We knew there were a lot more gins available than just your common or garden gins we had there and thought that we’d like to go to an event where you could find these, a bit like a beer festival for gin drinkers. There was nothing like that out there, so Marie and I decided that if no-one else was going to do it, we’d do it and that led to the first festival in Leeds in 2013.

Were you surprised by how popular it has been?

We were pleasantly surprised – we thought that other people would have the same interest in gin that we did, but we were still pleasantly surprised by how well it did take off. We had an inkling that if we wanted something like this, then clearly there would be other people who would want the same thing.

So, how many cities are you in now?

We’ve done about fifteen so far, so about ten different cities across the UK. We’ll probably hit another fifteen this year – so about thirty different festivals this year, a couple we will double up and do more than one in the same city, particularly if the venue isn’t able to hold a massive amount of people.

And which one has been your biggest so far?

Manchester has been our biggest, with around 4000 people. Previously our biggest was 3500, and Leeds in July again will be around 4000 capacity event.

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learned?

Perhaps ensuring that the customer is fully informed when they arrive at the event, and when they are at our event, we like to make sure we have staff there to make sure they’re alright and they don’t feel too overwhelmed by the events, because they’re quite big and there is a large amount of gin!

What’s the best part of it?

Two parts, for me, being a gin drinker, it’s being able sample new types of gin and being able to work and have that as my full time job, and the other part is being able to travel around the country, I love seeing unique buildings and different kinds of people, and just having a laugh with our staff.

Any plans to work with any other spirits, or are you going to stick with gin?

There are always plans, but at the moment, there are so many towns and cities we can reach, we’re quite happy in the gin market. We’re putting a major investment into our new website to make us a gin hub, to find new gins that you may not be able to find on other websites, from places like Spain and America. So our intention is to do what we’re passionate about.

What’s your favourite gin?

Depends what day of the week it is and what time it is.  

If I fancy something easy going and it’s a Saturday night let’s say, I’ll go for Brockmans, if I’m at home watching TV and want something nice and smooth, I’ll go for a Whitley Neil, or if it’s midweek and I’m just fancying one, let’s say, I’ll go for Robin of Loxley.

For next year, what are the plans?

The plan is to hit as many cities as we can do where people love gin. We want to become a brand where people expect a good night out with and will come and see us wherever we are, and maybe tour with us. We do have people who have been to our events in other cities who want to come for a great night out.

And when will you be back in Manchester?

Same time next year, same venue.

Yeah. I’ll see you there.

As ever, I paid for my attendance at the Gin Festival.