So, we rocked up to The Electric Theatre in Guildford and were delighted with how stunning the auditorium looked once we’d set up. The perfect size for our festival, it was backlit beautifully and we had that all-important breeze snaking through the room when it got warm. Perfect backdrop for the day!
We changed the format for this festival to deliver the best event we’ve ever curated. Two masterclasses were booked in: the first from Liquid Gold where attendees were guided through whisky investment and the history of the shop in Ashstead. The latter was provided by Benjamin as he introduced three of our new brands: Buffalo Trace, White Dog and Stagg Jnr. A bourbon masterclass is always going to be popular, and he had a stall discussing the brands further and giving away tasters. Like what you tried? Fantastic! It’s now regularly on our bars for you to have a dram whenever you come to the festival!
Boutique-y Whisky was represented by the now ‘our Dave’, as he talked through some new bottles he’d brought along – selling out of the English Whisky Co Batch that accompanied him. Apt timing too- as they were represented by Blair from Gordon & Macphail as he introduced yet another new brand to our bars. English Whisky Co is an innovative brand that we’re thrilled to add to our whiskey bar and proved a hit with everyone on the day. Not to be outdone, we have the immaculately-dressed Shilton from Paul John showcasing their whisky (if you’re a fan then you’ll be delighted with our Portsmouth masterclass announcement- hint, hint!) “Bold” and “Brilliance” were the most popular at the festival’s off-licence, always strong choices.
We all managed to squeeze into Prints Charming at the end of the night, our resident booth that we always adore dressing up in. Check out the album here and see if you can find your shots from the day: Guildford Prints Charming
There was yet another new menu from L&M Fusion Foods. Based in Camberley, they are our caterers of choice and we can’t https://premier-pharmacy.com/product-category/cholesterol-lowering/ recommend them highly enough. Constantly delighting us with their delicious food, we love their attention to detail and flexible attitude. They cater for any size event and do takeaways locally in their area: check out their page here for more info: L&M Fusion Foods.
Throughout the day we welcomed Becki back to the fold who performed a set at each session. Always a popular addition to our festival, she is opening up the floor to take requests and dedications- bear it in mind when you’re next attending if you have something you’d like to get her involved in!
What was the most popular on all the bars then? What made Guildford scramble?
SCOTCH Dalmore 15, Scallywag and Tomatin were all big hits. A complete mix this time!
BOURBON Willet’s Pot and Eagle Rare were the hits of the Surrey show, both topping the leaderboards in bar and off-licence.
WHISKEY Guildford loved a good mix on the whiskey bar too- Discovery Road, Togouchi and Hakushu were all favourites.
COCKTAILS Lemon Meringue was popular throughout the day- and made the theatre smells delicious, thank you to everyone who continually ordered it! Check our blog out for recipes if you’d like to recreate them at home!
We actively get social with attendees and invited them to share their experience of the night with us. We’re delighted that we did because the photos and posts coming in were fantastic! Prizes of free tickets are to be chosen at the end of next week, so if you have some to share then do so via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook using #whiskeyaffair and we’ll find it and choose our favourites. Thank you for all the participation so far, we’ve loved seeing the night from your side.
If you’d like to check out the photos from the night, have a look here: Guildford photo set.
Next we have Portsmouth on 17th June. Come and join us- we already have tons lined up to entertain you with and we’d love to see you! Info and tickets here: Event
See you soon!
The Whiskey Affair team
