What are some of events and festivals around rum that you can recommend? Preferably close to the Netherlands.
All I can find for my country is the “Gin & Rum Festival”. Has anyone here been there?
Thanks!
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In Belgium there’s Salon du Rhum, which is held in October. https://salondurhum.be/
I haven’t been here myself but seems to be very appreciated by many.
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I am trying to keep this list updated…
And yes, Salon du Rhum in Belgium and Whisky Live in Paris could be the closest to the Netherlands. In Western Germany we sadly only have small fairs, Limburg comes to my mind there…
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Whisky en Rum aan Zee in Ijmuiden, NL is a nice festival to visit as well. It is a smaller festival but offers good quality rum and the atmosphere is good. Is it hosted by Zeewijck.
Last weekend was Spirits in the Sky in Brussels, BE. It focusses on all spirits so rum is only a small part. It seems like there are less rum options each year and the atmosphere feels a bit cold. However, it is cheap (also means only the real basics are for free) and easy to get to by public transport.
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I’ve been to both Salon du Rhum and Spirits in the sky in Belgium this year and agree that the atmosphere at the latter was a bit colder. Could be because of the setting in the conference room of a hotel, especially compared to the old casino in Spa where SDR is held every year.
There were some interesting bottles at SITS, but nothing compared to SDR.
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Booked my first event for 2025.
My favourites are:
German Rum Fest
Whisky Live
Whiskymessen (Denmark)
Salon du Rhum
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I guess it depends what you want from it. The gin and rum festival in the UK has mainly local rums, mostly spiced best rums IMO were El dorado 12 Diplomatico Exclusiva etc there were no top tier rums.
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I’ve taken note of the suggestions that are within traveling distance.
What I would like to get out of an event is the opportunity to try rum, enjoy the atmosphere and perhaps learn a thing or two as I am new to the hobby.
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Have a search/read of the topics on here as there are some knowledgeable people and they produce interesting write-ups of the events. Spa sounds good, the German Rum Festival and Whisky live Paris but again there will be more knowledgeable people than me. I haven’t been to any of these, but from the write ups and following comments they sound interesting. I guess it depends how far you want to travel and spend…
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