Gin and Rum Festival 2021, Northampton
If there’s one thing I love, it’s going to food and drink festivals around the country. Obviously these have only started up again recently and it’s great to be back!
Last weekend we went to the Gin and Rum Festival 2021 in Northampton. I first discovered this amazing, boozy series of events about 3 years ago, when I went to both the Peterborough and the Swindon festival within the space of a couple of months (yes, really).
The Gin and Rum Festival is a series of events held around the UK where, you guessed it, you can go and sample a huge range of gins and rums from around the UK and the rest of the world.
Tickets were £15 per person and included entry to the event, your very own gin glass to keep after the event, plus a guide to all the drinks available. We went to the Saturday afternoon session, which runs from 12:30pm to 5pm, and there’s also an evening session that starts at 6pm.
When you arrive, you purchase drinks tickets that you exchange at the bar. Each ticket was £6 and that gets you 35ml of your choice of gin or rum plus a mixer.
One side of the room is dedicated to gin, the other to rum. And the bar staff are always happy to recommend the best mixer for your poison of choice!
At the back of the room, there was also a cocktail bar offering a few different classic cocktails, as well as wine and beer if you don’t fancy gin and rum (although not sure it would be in the spirit, as it were!).
If you’re worried about drinking on an empty stomach, no need to panic. They usually have a local food vendor providing something suitably stodgy. This time the food options were Caribbean (the portions looked HUGE) or mac and cheese, which is what I went for because it’s perfect to soak up all that yummy alcohol.
The one downside is that the queues for food are often very long. At this event there weren’t many people serving so it did take ages to get something to eat.
In terms of entertainment, there was a live band during the event who played lots of classic pop hits and it really ended up having a great party atmosphere (even though it was the middle of the afternoon!).
There was seating, but to be honest we were OK to stand for the event because we spent a fair amount of time at the bar anyway. If you do want to get a seat, it’s worth arriving early to make sure you can reserve a spot.
In addition to the main bars, there were also a number of gin and rum vendors dotted around the room (all offering free samples, of course). There were loads of individual bottles available to purchase and we left with an additional 5 bottles to add to our ever-growing alcohol collection!
To summarise, it was definitely a great afternoon out and I can’t wait to go to another one sometime next year! My husband and I love gin and rum, so really, it’s the perfect day out for us. Just make sure you book a taxi and, of course, drink responsibly!
Upcoming Gin and Rum Festival locations
2021 dates
29-30 October – Gin and Rum Festival Liverpool
6 November – Gin and Rum Festival Derby
13 November – Gin and Rum Festival Nottingham
20 November – Gin and Rum Festival Sheffield
26-27 November – Gin and Rum Festival Reading
2022 dates
11-12 March – Gin and Rum Festival Manchester
19 March – Gin and Rum Festival Northampton
1-2 April – Gin and Rum Festival Birmingham
8-9 April – Gin and Rum Festival Swindon
21 May – Gin and Rum Festival Derby
3-4 June – Gin and Rum Festival Norwich
10-11 June – Gin and Rum Festival Leeds
18 June – Gin and Rum Festival Lincoln
8-9 July – Gin and Rum Festival London
22-23 July – Gin and Rum Festival Peterborough
30 July – Gin and Rum Festival Brighton
6 August – Gin and Rum Festival Nottingham
12-13 August – Gin and Rum Festival Glasgow
19-20 August – Gin and Rum Festival Bath
3 September – Gin and Rum Festival Cheltenham
9-10 September – Gin and Rum Festival Manchester
1 October – Gin and Rum Festival Blackpool
14-15 October – Gin and Rum Festival Reading
22 October – Gin and Rum Festival Derby
19 November – Gin and Rum Festival Sheffield
Book tickets and see more details on the Gin and Rum Festival website.
