West Coast Culture

Just over a year ago a group of whisky distillery marketers, tourism businesses and historical sites got together and put together a proposal to hold a festival in May at Inverarary Castle. In truth their was only a slim chance of the concept being first accepted by those needed to make it work and secondly being able to secure funding and the necessary backing to make it work and underwright the event. However as is often the case with such wild ideas, the spirit and enthusiasm helps move the idea off the drawing board and this week we held the third briefing on progress and it was a chance to see how the idea had progressed and more importantly to help see how much further we had to go and the list of tasks still required to be completed before we opened the gates on the 16^th May.

In truth those working behind the scenes have achieved a great deal and with all the individual sections carrying on on their own they have all made huge leaps and bounds since before Christmas, I missed a meeting due to being in the States. It’s also amazing to see how the initial dreams are changing into reality and how plans and timetables put in place last year are now in full swing and all the organisation is now paying off. So now we have a “Spirit of the West” event and date and although we will have no doubt a rush to prepare for the event the excitement and anticipation will, I am sure make certain we are ready- or at least nearly ready.

The event will have various sections representing the areas of the west, from a Dram tent with whisky tasting and master classes, to  a history area with culture and arts, geneology, food and drink with cookery demonstrations, even Robert has agreed to a class, and lots of activities for families. Plans have been made for sunny hot weather whilst at the same time considerations made for a dreadful wet event and experiences from previous events and the knowledge of those who carry out these sort of activities on a weekly basis will be combined with some new ideas and concepts. The acceptance that as it will be the frst event of its kind some things may not go as planned is more realistic than negative and will we hope mean that we are at least ready for other eventualities.

So now it is back to work helping to whip up enthusiasm from those taking part and trying to build interest from others who would enjoy the event.