The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Festival spirit back at castle
The duo behind a new whisky festival will hold their first in-person event later this year having been forced to take it online in 2020 due to the pandemic.
Sandy Fraser and Ewan McIlwraith of Spirit of Perthshire first came up with the concept in November 2018, but had to cancel their first event last year due to Covid.
As a result, they took the festival online last May and have since been focusing their efforts to figure out what a whisky festival during the coronavirus era would look like.
Now, Sandy and Ewan plan to welcome around 300 whisky fans to the twoday event which will take place at Castle Menzies, near Weem in Aberfeldy, on Friday and Saturday August 27 and 28.
Working with The Menzies Charitable Trust, 50% of the profits from the ticket sales of Spirit of Perthshire will be donated to the castle to help with funding for its restoration project.
Ewan, who owns whisky and gin shop Robertsons of Pitlochry, is well-known in the industry and is involved in judging various whisky competitions.
Sandy said: “The idea came around in 2019. I met Ewan through my love of collecting whisky at his shop in Pitlochry. We thought it would be fun to try and organise an event which was supposed to take place last May.
“We put it online and it worked well, and we’ve decided to host the event at the end of August now.
“The response from the distilleries has been fantastic and we have 20 odd distilleries lined up and nearly another 10 to get in touch with. We’ll have a great day for the first event. The location really does make it.
“We’re interested in doing gin, beer and whisky festivals and we’d like to dabble in corporate entertainment and wedding favours. Ewan, in his own right, is a worldclass whisky judge and knows everything you need to know about it.
“We have actually agreed with the castle that 50% of the profit from the ticket sales will be donated to their restoration project fund to help with that.
“It is in need of some repair, so we thought this would be a nice way to work with them.
“They have offered us the venue for the next five years and have given us the opportunity to extend it to three days.”