Manchester Gin Festival

The UK’s largest Gin Festival returned to Manchester at the beautiful Victoria Baths. The last time I was here was coincidentally for another booze-​related festival, IndyManBeerCon (
) so I knew the setting was going to be an impressive one.
Tickets are sold through Eventbrite (£7.80) and sell out incredibly quickly so don’t delay when they become available for purchase.
On arrival you’re handed your festival glass (which you can keep as a memento) and a small brochure full of information on the 80 different gins you can try.
You need drinks tokens to buy the gin (the bars don’t accept cash) and you can get these at the desk inside the main hall. These worked out at £5 per drink and included Fever Tree tonic and a garnish. As we did, most people opted to buy a card of four drinks for £20, but you can buy fewer tokens if you like.
There are four bars down both sides of the main hall (labelled A to D) and they mirror each other so two of every bottle is available to ease queuing times. I’d never tried a fruit gin before but the Rhubarb & Ginger from Edinburgh Gin Distillery was the best of all the gins I tried that evening. Gorgeous served neat and delicate with tonic added. I’m definitely buying a bottle!
There’s live entertainment in the food hall and a series of talks from gin industry experts in some of the smaller side rooms but we didn’t attend any of those. One of the highlights was the Meet the Distillers area inside another of the pool rooms. Here about ten or so different gin makers had stalls where you could chat to them about their wares, try some samples and learn about where you could purchase a bottle or get a drink of their product in Manchester.
It was a fantastic event to attend; we learned a lot more about one of our favourite tipples and we’ll absolutely be back here next year with our gin-​loving friends.