Spirit of the West – Scotland’s first whisky culture festival – to be hosted at Inveraray Castle in May, now has most of its programme tied up.

Run in conjunction with Whisky Coast and part of the programme of Homecoming Scotland 2009 events, the event brings together Scotland’s – mainly Argyll’s – west coast whiskies with the best of local food producers’ delicacies, crafts, cookery demos from the whisky coast’s top chefs and a raft of entertainments.

Bagrock wow band, the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, pipes & drums tribal group Clann an Drumma, folk singer/songwriter Robin Laing, the Argyll Homecoming Gaelic Choir, and the silken voice of Islay’s Norma Munro are the latest acts to be announced.

The Red Hot Chilli Pipers – voted ‘Live Act of the Year 2007’ at the Scots Traditional Music Awards – will blast the event into life on 16th May.

The programme has added some family-oriented open air activities including crowd pleaser Big Rory, Ochi & The Giant Seagulls and sheepdog & duck display team, Drakes of Hazzard, as seen on Blue Peter.

There will be an Arts & Crafts marquee with craftsmen demonstrating their skills, fabulous gifts and crafts to shop for and advice on tracing your family tree.

Moving to the food elements – you can wait a little longer for the news on the whisky content – celebrity chef Nick Nairn joins the event on Sunday 17th May, cooking up for Argyll along with other well known west coast chefs. Across the weekend over 20 top local food producers will serve delicious dishes from stovies to venison stews.

16 world famous whisky distillers – 13 of which are from Argyll – including Springbank & Glengyle from Campbeltown, Isle of Arran, all eight distilleries from the Isle of Islay including Ardbeg, Bowmore, Bruichladdich, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila, Kilchoman, Lagavulin and Laphroaig, Isle of Jura, Oban, Tobermory from the Isle of Mull, Ben Nevis from Fort William and Talisker from the Isle of Skye will join the Dram Room. This is of course the star attraction.

Then the Whisky Theatre will hold 12 whisky masterclasses with key industry figures and feature whisky bards and industry celebrities in their own right, including Charles Maclean.

An evening ceilidh on Saturday 16th May will be hosted by Len Murray, one of the foremost speakers on Rabbie Burns.  From 7pm till midnight on the Saturday night, the event will celebrate the Spirit of the West with a five star, five course Rabbie Burns supper, charity auction, after dinner entertainment including music from Ceilidh Minogue and inescapable volumes of traditional mad ceilidh dancing.

Spirit of the West tickets are now available to buy online.

• Standard adult ticket prices for the day time event are £14.50 per day or £22 for the weekend.
• Family, concession and children tickets are also available.
• Whisky masterclass tickets cost an extra £10 per class and will be available for purchase on the day, based on a first come first served basis.
• Ceilidh tickets cost £65 per person, for over 18s only, with a percentage of the proceeds going to a chosen charity.

For details on how to book tickets for the Whisky Coast Ceilidh please email your interest to info@spiritofthewest.co.uk and check out the event’s website for more information.

Photograph of Inveraray Castle above is reproduced with permission and is by John Patrick.