Whisky Indy Love Festival 2026
Location
About
You have landed on the chance of joining perhaps one of the best whisky experiences in the World and I kid yee not!
The Indy is now in its 5th year so celebrations are in order! Take your senses on an extraordinary journey, this is seriously great whisky and spot on people in a pretty swanky environment. You would be hard pushed to beat this whisky festival anywhere in the World. Right in the heart of Newcastle at The Assembly Rooms we have ~25 of the finest spirits purveyors in the World and you get to sample away to your hearts content. This is an exploration into flavour like nothing else.
*****Newas Flash****** Masterclasses are now available to book on to too. Priced at just a tenner as a thank you for supporting the festival. There are 3 per session and each with very limited spaces. Masterclasses include cask samples, rare old releases, pre-releases, sold out unobtainables...
Masterclasses include an exclusive preview of 4 London Distillery Company cask sampes with Matt McKay MD and Whisky Maker at London, next example is with Principal sponsor Artful Dodger/Cut Your Wolf Loose long gone past releases inc an Ardbeg and Bruichladdich and mystery dram to die for... Plus masterclasses by Limited Drinks, Titanic Distillery, One Cask at a Time and Claxtons, holy moly I spoil you. Approx start times below:
Friday
Limited Drinks 6.30pm-7.30pm
One Cask at a Time 7.30-8.30pm
Titanic Distillery 8.30pm-9.30pm
Saturday
Artful Dodger/Cut Your Wolf Loose 12.30-1.30pm
One Cask at a Time 1.30-2.30pm
London Distillery Company 2.30-3.30pm
Claxtons 5-6pm
London Distillery Company 6-7pm
One Cask at a Time 7-8pm
So check em out. Please ensure you have a full session ticket for any masterclasses you 'd like to join. Times, line ups and availabilities are subject to change and if there are any clashes you can get a refund.
We already have a fairly full confirmed bunch of exhibitors and we have the support of amazing sponsors so here is a taster of some confirmed so far:
Woolf Drinks/Artful Dodger - Principal Sponsor
The Spirits Embassy - Glass Sponsor
Claxtons - Official Clothes Sponsor
Woodrow's of Edinburgh - Exclusive Glass lanyard sponsor
One Cask at a Time - Masterclass sponsor
Watt Whisky - First time exhibitor
Fruitful spirits - First time exhibitor
The Malt Library - First time exhibitor
The Sample Guys - First time exhibitor
Whey Aye Whisky - First time exhibitor new and first NE of England Indie that we know of
Distillery Corner (well might be a room full)
London Distillery Company - Masterclass Sponsor and first time exhibitor
Titanic Distillers Belfast distillery and new to the Indy
Pop back for regular updates but what a list so far. We also will have great food from an amazing street food vendor some will be familiar with from a previous Indy.
Indie/Indy bottlers is where its at, producing outstanding often single cask, cask strength stunning whisky (and other spirits) and frankly the value is far better than you would expect. These are not the whiskies you find sitting on supermarket shelves, all the distilleries you may have heard of just a whole lot more than your average core range. You get to meet and try whiskies from perhaps the best Indies on the planet (~20 of them plus a select few distilleries too) your ticket gets you entry, an exclusive festival Glencairn nosing glass, a bottle of water and try as many of the whiskies as you like (be careful as its high octane stuff so please drink responsibly).
FYI: What is an independent whisky bottler? Independent whisky bottlers buy casks of whisky from distilleries and bottle them under their own label. They tend to focus on the flavour of the whisky by managing the maturation in the cask, how long to mature it for, and often using cask finishes to add additional layers of flavour. Another thing is they tend to offer their whisky un-chill-filtered and higher if not original cask strength so big stuff. Also arguably they offer some of the best value and bang for buck. Some of the bottlers will also be offering often very hard to find bottles there on their stand for you to try and buy straight off them.
Tickets from as little as £20 for a taster session. Also the venue could not be better and only 5 mins walk from Newcastle Central Rail station and metro.
