Inverness Ice Centre launches first round of events Ginverness and Whisky Over Ice
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AN Inverness ice sports charity will be bringing in two events to get the summer going with a cheerful spirit.
For the first time Inverness Ice Centre will be organising two events for gin and whisky lovers: first will be Ginverness on August 13, which will be followed by Whisky Over Ice on August 27.
Tickets for the gin session, which are up at £20 and divided in two sessions, are already available online, whereas sales for Whisky Over Ice will open on Friday, June 17 at 10am.
Inverness Ice Centre chairman and keen whisky collector, Michael Green, said: "We have around 20 distilleries who will be taking part so far, although that may increase in the coming weeks.
"We are trying to make this a really sustainable event. We are not charging any of the exhibitors money, it's just very good having them coming along and putting in time, resources and expertise, and we've had such a fabulous response from distillers.
"There's been smaller bespoke tastings before but a festival of this type I think is required in a place like Inverness, with so many top notch distilleries on our doorstep. Having just one session will be very good for exhibitors as they can come from all over Scotland just for the day, it will be very user friendly for them.
"We are trying to make it interesting for people, there will be auctions and raffles throughout the day, there will be a lot of things going on to make it a more enjoyable experience.
"At the Ice Centre we have a very open culture so we will be doing Ginverness, Whisky Over Ice and then Christmas Skating on Ice Extravaganza in December."
Glen Wyvis, Clynelish, Glen Ord, Glenfarclas and Dalwhinnie are among the distillers which are due to attend, as well as JG Thomson & Co and Cairns Exclusive Drinks Company.
Whisky Over Ice will see a main session last from 1pm to 4pm, with 350 tickets at £45 each, as well as a special session with 24 places (£60 each) at 12pm which will be delivered by Thomas Gardiner, owner of Scotch Whisky Auctions – a main sponsor of the festival – and in which he will bring some whiskies from his personal collection.
Special tickets will be on sale to the public at a later date.
Inverness Ice Centre CEO, Gordon Barron, said that the events will help support the charity in the future.
He commented: "We have received funding from the Common Good Fund from the Highland Council towards new flooring that will allow us to extend what we will be doing as an events centre so we are really looking forward to this.
"With the new flooring we will be able to set up the space for off-ice events more quickly, which will mean less disruption to our on-ice activities and we will be able to do more events.
"As a charity we have been looking at new things to generate fundraising and these are two main events.
"We hope having more events will also help promote our on-ice activities."
