Inverness hosts Scottish National Whisky Festival for fourth year with sold out session at Eden Court

Spirits were high this afternoon as whisky enthusiasts gathered in Inverness for an annual whisky festival.

The Scottish National Whisky Festival took over Eden Court’s One Touch theatre for the fourth year running, with distilleries, independent bottlers and whisky businesses showcasing some of their best drams from across Scotland.

Although this year’s edition was smaller than previous years in size — with just under 20 exhibitors attending on the day — the event was still a success, with 300 tickets for the session selling out the night before.

This comes at a time of restructuring as festival co-ordinator Gareth Croll, who had been leading on the Inverness event since its start, recently left the company to take over a new role abroad.

However, despite the challenges, it was a great day, according to Caterina Conti, operations manager at event organising company 432 Present.

“For us it's a success, considering the big man is away! The atmosphere was lovely and the team and the venue are great.

“I love that there still are different demographics from what you may expect. There are a lot of young people, and women taking part. There was just a great atmosphere in my opinion.”

She said the hope is for the event to continue to grow, and coming years may see organisers trying to tap into the tourism industry in Inverness.

“That's a very good strong point in Inverness — as I could see walking down the street earlier in the day, it was really busy!

“We're trying to get some partnerships with the likes of hotels and visitor centres to spread the word about this event, because we think that could be really, really interesting, a step up in a tourist experience in Scotland — especially people coming from abroad, like America, many of whom are really into whiskey. We are getting better at that including that side of So yeah, and it's looking like slowly working.”

But they are still very much hoping to keep attracting locals — with word of mouth being what they found works best at advertising the event.

Although they are hoping to grow the festival, she said they are “loyal” to the venues they have been working on in the past, where there is a great space such as Eden Court — particularly where there is a good connection with the in-house team. The introduction of a second session will likely be the next step to attract more numbers in coming years.