Craft gin worth £50,000 sold off after festival venture is axed

HUNDREDS of bottles of gin were auctioned off yesterday after a firm organising festivals went into administration.

Some 20,000 tickets have been sold by Gin Festival Limited to punters across Britain, but all the events were cancelled due to a lack of funds.

Yesterday, 1,200 bottles of craft gin worth £50,000 went under the hammer with no reserve in Scunthorpe.

Thousands of bottles of mixers were also sold off, auctioneers Eddisons CJM told the BBC.

Ahead of the event, director Paul Cooper said: “We divided most of the gins into practical lots of two to six bottles so that members of the public can get involved in the bidding, as well as trade buyers.

“Everything in the auction is being sold without reserve, so it makes what it makes. We’re also auctioning huge quantities of mixers. We reckon we have something more than 7,000 bottles of those, so they are obviously being sold in larger lots.”

Sheffield Gin Festival, which was scheduled to take place at Kelham Island in the city on Sept 21-22 was called off, along with 19 other festivals planned for Edinburgh, Wakefield, Liverpool, Leicester, Birmingham, Worcester, Oxford, Norwich, Portsmouth and elsewhere.

Those who bought the 20,000 advance tickets sold for the events have been advised to contact their payment providers to check if they were covered for their loss.