An important announcement about our WhiskyFest New York for 2012…
One night of WhiskyFest™ just isn’t enough so we’ve expanded the New York event to an entire weekend. That’s right, the Grand
Tasting will be held in the evening on two nights: Friday, October 26th and Saturday, October 27th. The Grand Tasting events will feature all that you have come to expect from WhiskyFest: over 200 whiskies and other spirits including single malts and blended Scotch, Irish, Bourbon, Tennessee, Japanese, Canadian, and other whiskies from around the world. Beer, rum, cognac, and many other spirits will also be available for sampling. A gourmet buffet will be served and available for your enjoyment all evening. Master distillers, blenders and many other industry experts will be in attendance.
A full day of seminars will be held on Saturday, the 27th. The entire day will be dedicated to whisky education covering a variety of topics and offering the opportunity to taste new, rare, and award-winning whiskies. The sessions will be led by Whisky Advocate writers, master distillers and master blenders. No need to pick and choose which seminars you will attend. The sessions will be scheduled one at a time with lunch included. (The day-long seminars replace the evening seminars that were previously held
during the grand tasting.)
WhiskyFest New York 2012 will be held at the Marriott Marquis Times Square. For further details, visit our website by clicking here. WhiskyFest New York 2012 will be a whisky weekend not to be missed!
it’s a shame whisky fest chose friday and saturday to make the event in 2012… as a practicing jew, it makes it impossible to attend since those are our sabbath days.
i went to the event in ny this year for the first time and it was fantastic… to my eye, MANY observant jews were present. Sadly we are going to be left out in 2012.
for 2013 may i suggest you plan in during the week as per years past? Thank you!
I concur.
I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a drastic decrease in attendance for the NY event.
Great idea! Hopefully, the choice seminars/tastings won’t overlap.
I share Ely’s concerns, as do my friends who might not post here. Not being able to attend WhiskyFest for the first time in eight years is disheartening, to say the least. As observant Jews, attendance at such an event on a Friday night or Saturday is nearly impossible. I’m sorry to see you’re going in this direction, but will (obviously) continue to be a Whisky Advocate….
I went to my first WF last year last year. I waffled about it, but now, I’m glad I did. Who could’ve guessed that it would be the last independent WhiskeyFest ever?
This is a major rebranding– And one that doesn’t stint on the premiumization….
eh?
I understand that feedback has indicated a preference for a weekend event. However, the schedule as it currently stands does exclude a section of the attendees. Ultimately I believe the market should drive your decisions and if more people do attend next year due to the timing all the more power to you. However, allow me to offer the following suggestion. Schedule whiskey fest for _after_ the change from Daylight Savings time. This will allow Sabbath observers enough time to make Saturday evening sessions. Sundown moves up an hour and there is enough time for people in the NY metro area to make it into Manhattan to attend.
If it was Saturday night and Sunday during the day, wouldn’t everyone be happy? Until Monday morning, anyway.
There are two reasons why Sunday isn’t good for seminars: a lot of people go to church on Sunday too! Plus, attending Sunday seminars means that the attendee will most likely have to take a vacation day on Monday to travel back home (wherever that is).
Yes, that was my thought as soon as I saw the ‘Save the Date’ notice in the fall issue.
Unfortunately, we usually don’t get a choice of dates from the hotel. Often, it’s a “Tere’s the only date we have for you. Take it or leave it.” NYC space for an event this large is extremely difficult to find. We would prefer to have the event later in November.
I love this idea. Not only will it mean much less of a rush to get to every interesting booth, but it also means not having to pick between the seminars as well. Great idea (and really the only practical way to expand WhiskyFest)!
I wouldn’t have minded Tasting on one weeknight and Seminars on another weeknight. That’s not too impractical…
Actually, it is. I would require anyone from out of town to take probably two vacation days and two hotel nights. (Not to mention requiring the whisky companies to commit to two days when the same could be done in one day.)
I like the idea of a two-day event. And while I appreciate the concerns expressed in this thread, I also like having a weekend WhiskyFest. Due to work commitments I could not attend daytime seminars during the week. Hopefully we’ll see these changes at the Chicago event soon as well.
Wow, it’s gotten more expensive though. I guess that only makes sense, given how quickly it sells out, but there’s still a bit of sticker shock. I’d better buy my Chicago tickets while I can still get early bird pricing.
This was a very difficult decision. So many people, for so many years, have been asking us to expand to two nights so it’s less crowded, to have the seminars during the day so they don’t compete with the ballroom tasting, etc. The only way we can do this is to have it on the weekend, so people don’t have to take vacation days to attend. Yes, there’s a BIG downside to this: creating a conflict for all of my good friends (and fellow whisky enthusiasts) who are observant Jews. It pains me.
Thanks, John. As I reminded you at WhiskyFest, we’d love it if you’d find some time for holding another smaller event (DBA, perhaps?) for folks, as your schedule permits. After all, I still want to know “What Does John Know?”
Having went to school in NY, it is VERY hard to find the space for this. I wish the festival in Chicago would be for 2 days and I would be more interested in trying the bourbons rather than hearing them speak, and thus would love an extra day to do so.
With all due respect, I believe you meant to say “Having [gone] to school in NY[.]“
Great news, will go for the 1st time in 2012. Should have Vally Forge Casino open in Time to enjoy a nice break.
Will single night Grand Tasting tickets be available? Would love to not have to burn a vacation day and take a Friday off from work. Far easier for me to attend Saturday night.
Yes, you can pick Friday or Saturday night, and we also will have a combination package if you also want to attend the seminars on Saturday during the day. Details are on our website and there’s a link to it above in my post.
Thanks John. I didn’t see any info on tickets during my first perusal. I’ll have to look again.
Maybe it’s my phone browser but I don’t see any info on tickets on the link above or the Whiskyfest blog. All I see is info on tickets coming soon.
Right, I think our festival group is still fine-tuning the pricing and options. Check back again in a week or two.
Is that what’s going on? I made a reference to ticket pricing (premiumization) earlier, but when I went to get a quote i couldn’t find the prices I’d seen earlier…
Yes, some fine-tuning of options and prices, I believe.
Please consider doing the seminars during the day/afternoon for Chicago too. I hate to miss so many of them every year.
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