War of the whisky festivals

[Deactivated Member]

Normally I would say that the more festivals we get the chance to visit, the better. But this time I'm not so sure.

As many of you know, Munich started a whisky festival, I think, 4 years ago.
The first couple were at a quite central location called the praterinsel.
Then the person who runs the Frankfurt festival took over and moved the festival into a hotel environment.
He then decided to alternate festivals between Munich and Hamburg, giving Munich a festival only every second year. This meant that original organisor ran a festival back at the praterinsel last year, whilst the other was in Hamburg.

Do you follow so far?

Well, it now seems that we have festival wars in Munich as the praterinsel one will run at the end of Jan 2009, but the 'other' one will also run two weeks later in a local hotel.

I was quite happy with the idea of alternating festivals, but this current situation is quite silly. Both will suffer as I'm sure distilleries and bottlers will not be able to support both when so close together.

Even as a visitor I am in some dilemma as to which one to attend as I don't expect to visit both.
MT

[LagaDrinker]

That seems a really bad idea to put them both so close together. I think your point of them both suffering as result is a very valid one. I would not be able to justify visiting two whisky events in that short space of time.

[peat-chaser]

I prefer the original munich whisky and bar festival, which will take place in january in the originl location of the praterinsel.
Munich doesn´t need a "rip-off-event" like the interwhisky, let´s make munich a CR-free zone! No poodles in tartan required!

[corbuso]

Normally I would say that the more festivals we get the chance to visit, the better. But this time I'm not so sure.
MT

In Germany, the situation is getting crazy indeed. Between Limburg, Interwhisky and all other local/regional whisky fairs, this is getting too much. I prefer 1-2 high quality fairs than many of average level.
The problem is, for local retailers, it is important to have a whisky fair close to their shop in order to find new clients.
A good situation might be to alternate the location of the events every year.

Corbuso

[peat-chaser]

I don´t understand your problem, there is ONE high-level whisky-exhibition in germany - I dare say in europe - which is THE MEETING of the maltheads and this is the Whisky-Fair Limburg in April.

Besides this, there are several smaller regional exhibitions like CWH Berlin, Whisky-Festvial Munich, Aqua Vitae Essen, Bremen, Kiel, Aschaffenburg, .... with mainly regional retailers and only a few importeurs. They are close by, nice, familiar, ....

And there is the interwhisky Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich (?), which is a highly commercial event, lacking any kind of local charme and taking place in luxury hotels. (Sorry, but I get angry if I just think of the internal paying system with those tokens ....)


For me Limburg is a MUST and my home event the munich whisky-festival is a must too, because we´ll be running free guided tours for newbies and interested guests again. Everything else may be occasionally be visited by me or not, in the last 3 years, I´ve been to CWH and in 2009 I think I´ll be to Maltstock in Nijmegen/NL.

[Deactivated Member]

Sorry, I've been offline for a couple of days.

Anyway, I would normally agree with Peaty, but in this case, the organisor of the praterinsel event is being rather stupid and is, in my opinion, trying to get a bit too big for his boots.

Yes, this is a personal thing, but I cannot bring myself to promote his event or even frequent it unless he changes his attitude a little.

Having said this, the interwhisky events leave a lot to be desired, so it looks like no Munich festival for me in 2009.