Damster Spirit Festival

On Twitter Whisky etc magazine has a competition going where each week there is a question to be answered related to the Nightcaps book by Hans Offringa. Normally I am not at all that good in these kind of things, so I was really surprised that I have won two tickets for the Damster Spirit Festival.

My husband was looking at this festival last year, when it was the first time that it was organized.  So we were happy to be able to check this new festival out.

This festival is held in Appingedam, the north of the Netherlands. Because it is a very long drive for us, we decided to stay the night there, to fully be able to enjoy the festival.

It is a festival held for the second time, and is a combination of not only whisky, but also cigars, jenever, cheese, wine, rum, beer, and much more. We loved this approach, and to be able to taste a wider range of products.

In the beautiful Nicolai Church, there were some bigger brands, but also some more local products and producers of fine spirits.

They told us that last year they started with more having only whisky at the festival, but that they heard comments from visitors that they wanted a more mixed setup.

They said, that there should also be something else then whisky for the ladies. Well, what shall I say about that? ;-)

As a woman I know the feeling that people look a bit strange to you when you drink whisky, it is still a man's drink sadly. And even more when you look at liking the peated whisky's. Then the eyebrows get raised a lot by people... 

I hear also that a lot of women don't know whisky at all too well and make the assumption that it is something not for them... But why not try it first?

Trying to convince women that there is some beautiful stuff out there, and that there is something for every one. But they seem to afraid to try it, it looks...

When I hear people saying things like this at festivals and in print, I get a bit angry from time to time. I just hope, that people would dare to look beyond the boundaries set by society. They would be amazed by the things they find out there.

But coming back to the setup of this festival, it was very nice, but maybe it could have had a bit more stands. Just a couple would have done it I think.

Enjoyed our selfs very much, and the diversity in stands was good. We have met some lovely people there who are distilling and also tried some more jenever products. We surely will make a visit to some of them in the future to have a look around. 

We had a lovely time there, and tasted some lovely products. It is a beautiful location and town. It was very nice to experience the difference between the larger festivals and something more intimate. 

Thanks again to the organization of Damster Spirit Festival and Whisky etc for the tickets! We had a lot of fun! Thanks for having us there!