Vilnius Whisky Festival
Vilnius Whisky Festival was postponed a few times because of the pandemic, but finally, it took place on the 2nd of April 2022.
We are happy that each festival grows. Each festival has more guests, whisky brands, producers, and retailers than the previous. Also, every year we get more reviews, comments, and offers.
After finalizing all the data and numbers for Vilnius Whisky Festival 2022, we can safely say that Vilnius Whisky Festival 2022 was a success! Together with you, we managed to lift the bar and future expectations of the biggest whisky event in the Baltic States higher again!
Guests
The last pre-pandemic Vilnius Whisky Festival took place in 2019. That year we had 1200 guests, but with attention from whisky consumers, pressure for novelties, and a will to have a larger crowd, we had to rethink the festival’s space.
We think we did a decent job making the event known among consumers. All the tickets for Vilnius Whisky Festival 2022 were sold-out a week before the festival. But as mentioned above, the event was postponed a few times, and a small number of purchased tickets were unused. The total number of guests at Vilnius Whisky Festival 2022 was 1450.
Participants
Ever-growing whisky supply and competition, restrictions on alcohol promotion, a growing number of whisky suppliers, and positive reviews of Vilnius Whisky Festival increase the number of requests to join the event. We decline requests from whisky brands that doesn’t have distribution in Lithuania yet, but the ever-growing number of them already available here increases the number of exhibition stands. We are happy that this year there were 52. It is a new record.
We are particularly pleased to see foreign guests and brand ambassadors from abroad. In our opinion, precisely they are the ones who spread the news about Lithuania, our whisky market, and our hospitality. We hope they speak of us Lithuanians, as cultured and curious whisky consumers.
VIP Lounge
This year VIP lounge was popular among the festival’s guests. We sold all the 120 tickets destined for it long before the event. More comfort, fewer people, about 70 rare limited-edition whiskies, and a separate cocktail bar – that is what you additionally get with the VIP ticket.
Those 70 whiskies were rare, limited-edition, super-premium whiskies that you could not get in the main area. The worth of the collection was about 12000€.
Only people with VIP tickets could enter the VIP lounge. We also gave these VIP bracelets to the festival’s foreign guests and brand ambassadors from abroad.
Each participant could give whiskies to the VIP lounge, but as most of them did not show any interest in doing so, we, as organizers, supplied almost all of it. Only a few bottles of whisky came from Mineraliniai Vandenys and Viskio Jūra.
Whisky pairings and other stands
Each Vilnius Whisky Festival we look for new ways to surprise the audience with new whisky pairings. Also, we try to keep the ones that were most popular in the last events. As the festival grows, it becomes difficult to control the crowds and show the whisky pairings. Maybe that is the main reason, why one will not find things like this in most other European whisky shows.
This year we had Compass Box whisky pairing with Džiugas cheese, Kavalan whisky pairing with Dione ice cream, Compass Box whisky pairing with Spanish withered ham from Ispaniškas Maistas, you could try oysters with Bowmore, and Irish coffee with Teeling whiskey made by baristas from BREW. Specialty Coffee. It was unfortunate that whisky and chocolate pairing hosts got sick the night before the event and could not participate.
Besides the whisky pairings, you could also see other whisky-related entertainments. Monkey Shoulder cocktail machine/bar, where you could get a cocktail by throwing in an orange. You could hear stories of beer aging in whisky barrels from Genys and Švyturys brewers. Genys even brought two barrels with aging beer and guests of Vilnius Whisky Festival could try the aging beer straight from the barrels. Maker’s Mark whisky representatives showed how their trademark waxing is made.
Cocktail Room
In our opinion, the most exciting novelty this year was the Cocktail Room. Expanding the area of the Vilnius Whisky Festival and controlling the crowd we decided to place the Cocktail Room on the ground floor of the hotel. You could see three bars there: Wild Turkey, Tullamore D.E.W., and Woodford Reserve. The festival’s visitors could get cocktails from these bars with vouchers in the brochure.
Our goal was to make the Cocktail Room alive, cozy, and with a party vibe. DJ Groovy played music all day long, the terrace was open for whisky conversations. We imagined that the second part of the day would be the time of this area, looking to other festivals around Europe.
Masterclasses
At Vilnius Whisky Festival 2022 we had 3 masterclasses: Teeling, Milk & Honey, and Arran. Like at the previous festivals, only visitors from distilleries or visiting brand ambassadors could host them. Everyone could join these masterclasses free of charge with festival tickets, only the capacity was limited to 30 attendees. Those willing to get in had to come before the masterclass to wait in line.
Communication
With the strict regulations on the advertising of alcohol which basically bans it in Lithuania, we have a big challenge to reach the target audience of the Vilnius Whisky Festival. Because of that, we put lots of personal effort all year long between the festivals to communicate and promote the event. We promote it in every smaller event and tasting we host (we make really lots of these), promote it on social media (there are just very few things you can do), give away many promotional small cards about the festival, and place posters of Vilnius Whisky Festival in bars and specialty shops of our partners and friends.
But despite all that and all other difficulties, the communication about Vilnius Whisky Festival was successful after all and the number of visitors shows that.
Summary
We are truly happy that Vilnius Whisky Festival is growing. Each event has more visitors, more participants, and more whiskies present. It is also a pleasure to get nice reviews both from visitors, participants, and guests from abroad.
We thank you all for sharing your experience, we talk a lot with everyone we can who could share it with us to make notes for future events. We try to learn from our mistakes and want to improve where ever we can.
And as usual, we are very pleased with the visitors to the Vilnius Whisky Festival, which are polite, cultured, and very curious.
Numbers
1 day.
1450 people.
52 exhibition stands.
5 whisky entertainments.
2 brewers.
3 masterclasses.
3 cocktail bars.
We would like to say another big THANK YOU to all of you involved in the Vilnius Whisky Festival 2022. For those who were involved in organizing it, for those who participated in it, and for those who visited it. We all made this day special!
Cheers,
Vilnius Whisky Festival team
